Festival of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i La Ribera, open doors of Barcelona

The festa major of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i La Ribera is not a fiesta of 3 different areas but only 1 neighborhood and one of the most interesting cultural festivals of Barcelona.

Located outside of the city wall, in the past, this area was divided in 2 sections, the rich ones and the poor ones and between them, a big place where was celebrated most of city parties converted it actually as one of the best entertainment zones of Barcelona.

Moreover, it owns one particularity that most of the others don’t have, something that I will call the pre-festival so instead to last normally 1 week, it is 2 weeks of edutainment.

You may wonder what consists this extra week ??? Interesting places to visit for free like the catalan music palace, one of the most beautiful modernist buildings, the entremesos house, to know more about the catalan culture, the zoo of Barcelona, the picasso museum and much more.

Yes you read well, no need to pay to get in, it is the open door day so the entrance is totally free and for instance, if you go to the catalan music palace, there will be some performances. Just take note that some last the full day and some only in the morning.

Then comes the opening day of this traditional festival which is celebrated on saturday at 11h with a parade of the giants from the fossar de les moreres square until the santa caterina market. To give you a better idea, it is located near to the church of Santa Maria del Mar, so around the Born area.

During the week, activities start around 18h and from the morning, few things are scheduled since most of people have to work but for the others, they can go to visit free some museums like the chocolate and mammoth museums.

The weekend is to rest but no one will stay at home and you, who are coming to visit Barcelona, I don’t think that you will stay at your hotel. Good because there are a lot of entertainments that wait you and a lot of concerts.

For people who love to eat, they can learn how to cook some traditional foods, participate with local people the dance of the sardana, the parade of the demons called correfoc, see how people do a tower with their own body called casteller and more surprises.

So if you want to be there for the 2 weeks in june, you should come at the 3rd saturday but if you are looking for the main spirit of the festival, be in the city the 4th saturday until the next sunday. To know the full programs, the best is to check its official website (only catalan).