La Mercè Procession

Start: Pelai (corner with Gravina). Route: Pl. Catalunya, La Rambla, Ferran, Pl. Sant Jaume and City Hall

La Mercè Procession

Barcelona has a long tradition of all sorts of solemn and festive processions, offering authentic itinerant displays. This is the case with the ‘Cavalcada de la Mercè’, the procession for the city’s local festival which has been the most constant and visually impressive activity down through the years, ever since it began at the start of the last century.

Giant figures, practically the only ever-present element at celebrations in Barcelona, provide the central theme for this enthusiastic and festive procession, organised by the Barcelona Giants Coordination Committee. This event’s scenic and interdisciplinary power, its great capacity for drawing crowds, its public recognition, its condition as a central part of the festival which is never lost, give the procession a strength which enables it to harbour all sorts of popular, festive, traditional, artistic and innovative displays.

The procession for 2023 starts in C/ Pelai at 6 pm and concludes an hour later in Pl. Sant Jaume with a performance from some of its most symbolic and spectacular elements. The final giant activity for La Mercè (before the closing ceremony of Toc a plegar on 25 September) ends at 8.30 pm.