Last night Barcelona celebrated Sant Joan: apostle and Christian proselytizer, he also went by the name Son of Thunder; a thumpingly good nickname if you can get it, and one that is rightly deserving of an outdoor celebration.
Drummers on the beach in Barcelona. Sharmeela Harris.
It’s difficult to convey the chaos and disorder of the night: kids chase each other with half-lit firecrackers elbowed on by their parents. War-like bangs echo around the seven-story, stone apartments, inducing very entertaining flinches from passersby. Teenagers flick fireworks that fizz, bang then hiss out. Smoke slowly evaporates into the warm nights air leaving the thick sulfurous odour between the groups lying on the sand. The glimmering Mediterranean, now black, still entices a few swimmers and the next beach is just as randomly assorted as the previous. The celebration becomes more of a riot than an organised festival.
The shoulder-shrieking cracks from five-euro fireworks rattle around the city every 23rd June. Not quiet summer solstice celebration (the longest day of the year was Saturday) and low on overt religious commemorations to Saint John, the celebration in the beach city of Barcelona takes on a vibrantly cosmopolitan quality.
Celebrations outside the W building. Sharmeela Harris.
The smoke and fire make for a medieval backdrop. A flame was carried from the Pyrenees that set light to bonfires around Catalonia yesterday, however bonfires are banned on Barcelona’s beaches - a confusing Health and Safety ruling given the groups of children who use the festival to learn the science of just how far you need to stand from a firecracker before you’re hit or lose your hearing. The impressive La Merce, the city’s beautifully unique barrio parties that will begin soon, Independence Day, and on, and on; festivals here are a wonderful visual treat for any citizen of Barcelona, however none are as cosmopolitan as St Joan; none reflect the city’s true diversity, and none reveal the city to be the emerging diverse metropolis that it is fast becoming.
Moving along the beach, away from the centre, the electronic music fades away and the vibration of live drumming increases. Here, Barcelona showcases its rich cosmopolitanism: Indians dancing Bhangra to Brazilian drums, Germans hopping to an elusive samba beat.
A tourist fresh to the city with a little knowledge of the Iberian Peninsula may mistake the fireworks and dancing for a Catalan celebration of Spain’s exit from the World Cup. (While Spain won their final game against Australia, they officially left the competition earlier in the day.) Others would see the beach bound celebrations as the city resetting its summer clock: the holiday falls on a Tuesday, creating a ‘Puente’ whereby many will enjoy a long weekend and won’t be up for work today. Where better to set the tone for summer’s forthcoming late nights and slow mornings than on the beach, two days after the sun was in the sky for its longest amount of time. Not everyone swarms to the Barcelona’s sandy edge however; many locals leave for a quieter night along the Costa Brava.
Back in England the summer solstice is monopolized by the Druids who awake early to see the sun rise over Stonehenge and cop a psychotic feel at the spiritual force oozing out of the Neolithic stones. For Sant Joan in Barcelona they start from scratch, creating the spirit themselves, drumming the sun awake instead.