The Mercè festivities are back to normal this year; It is even true that they will be conditioned by weather forecasts that have forced events to be suspended from the first minute. They arrive after two years absolutely conditioned by the pandemic, to the point that in 2020 a decentralized pyromusical show was experimented with throughout Barcelona to be contemplated by the residents from the respective rooftops of their houses. Exactly the opposite of what a festival should be, and at the same time a display that the city could continue to beat in unison even in those circumstances. Although that was not the most difficult year, as Rosa Mach, who was responsible for organizing the Mercè for years, recalls: celebrating the festivities in 2017 was even harder, in a state of mourning for the attacks in August and in restless expectation for what was to happen in October. This year the pyromusical returns to Montjuïc, the ‘correfoc’ only moves to Passeig de Gràcia due to works (in what could be a happy experiment) and the usual spaces of the center are reoccupied, if the rain allows it of the city and the decentralized ones that must extend the party to other neighborhoods and avoid collapses that have sometimes bordered on public risk. The pre-election perspective perhaps it will raise the tone of any controversy that arises during this long holiday weekend for the people of Barcelona. But hardly these days the leading role (for once, perhaps the last until next spring) will have the tremendous public discourse on the state of the city. Nor the one that proclaims as ideal urban revolutions, idealized and above any criticism what is management, right or wrong, innovative or routine wrapped in rhetoric, open to participation or unilateral. Nor that of the daily apocalypse that flares up without discriminating between the problems common to any large city and the errors of its own model and that is just as capable of elevating anecdotes to the level of disaster as of assuming chronic problems as normal, or refusing to admit the reasons worthy of recognition or even civic pride.
There will be a few months ahead of us to see if, in the face of these entrenched discourses, it is possible to open debate on where the city is going and should go. These days are to meet her again, enjoy her and, if possible, for once, like her. Although not because we are experiencing the recovered festival these days (created, in fact, as we know it today, four decades ago) we must stop reflecting on this established model to the point of having become a tradition. In these years there have been successes and corrections (for a few days the whole city returns to feel the historic center as its own, while it is necessary to look for other scenarios), but also shortcomings that should make the festive traditions of other capitals envious. The proclamation of the filmmaker Carla Simón, full of vindication of the cultural vitality of the city and its capacity to welcome, would it not have had its natural space on the balcony of Plaça de Sant Jaume and not in the institutional intimacy of the Saló de Cent? The fear (more than justified seeing some background) of booing, boycotting or protest where it hurts the most should not limit what should be a popular act and with voices that are capable of going from the halls to the squares. As long as it can’t be like that, La Mercè (and Barcelona) will lack something.