At festivals, the squares are easily converted into bottledromes with the consequent inconvenience and incidents that often include. with the will of avoid this, in the festivities of Gràcia they try to program numerous official activities in these spaces, and it seems that it is working for them. At least that’s how it was Thursday at night, when the live music has maintained a relaxed atmosphere in the streets and squares of the neighborhood and has remarkably contained the large bottles.
The controlled nocturnal activity Avoid massive bottles. This is how they see it from the Vila de Gràcia squaremanaged by the ‘castellers’, who remember that “about ten years ago”, when this place was not included in the festival schedule, it was an “epicenter” of people who gathered to drink and that this caused “fights and annoyances“. Since it is decorated and activities are organized, “these situations are avoided“, they assure.
In the Raspall squarewhere the so-called “alternative” party is (since it is not attached to the Foundation) they affirm that they are “careful” with the programming and try to prioritize concerts of music in catalan and feminist groups to attract more the native public and avoid tourist mass and the drunkenness that already characterizes this major festival.
concentrated alcoholism
In addition to the concerts, the large bottles also seem to play a key role in the distribution of spaces. This Thursday, the Vila, Sol and Raspall squares have had their stages in the center, and a festive but relaxed atmosphere has revolved around them. Not so in the Gypsy Town squarewhere the stage has been cornered and the space, more open, at midnight could already be considered a whole bottledrome. Litronas, cans, glasses, bottles and street vendors with refrigerators and carts have been moving through a very crowded square in which not even a pin could fit; in which it was difficult to move between sweaty bodies during this hot August night in Barcelona.
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At the end of the official programming at two o’cloc after midnight -time limit at which the concerts had to end-, this has been precisely the main meeting point among the young people who wanted to continue the party. Full to the brim, the bottle in the Plaza del Pueblo Gitano continued to the rhythm of the portable speakers, with which the dance continued in the absence of concerts and DJs. Other streets have not suffered this concentration of people, although the accumulation of trash and the smell of urine on public roads has been present in a general way in the neighborhood as in so many other years.
The Gràcia Festival, which is already dying of success due to the massification and that he is currently trying to find the formula to stop it, he still has the two strongest nights of this 2023 ahead of him: Friday and Saturday. These days, the concerts may end a little later, at 03:30, but the influx of people wanting to continue celebrating is expected to be greater.