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Spectacular worldwide human towers competition

In the world, there are things which keep us in awe and the castellers, people who build human castles, are one of them. It is very impressive to see one in a normal day but during the most important contest, much more.

Every 2 years, during a weekend, all best schools, known as colles, meet in an arena, not like the gladiators during the old time to fight until death, but to struggle until falling. The first thing that impresses the spectator is the tide of colors. Each colle has a color, blue, green, red… and all of them on the central square, ready to start the show although it is already begun with this unbelievable view.

The first competition was celebrated in Barcelona in 1902

during the Merce festival and it was only from 1932 that it has been moved to Tarragona (Spain), exactly at the Tarraco Arena (calle jaume I, 35).

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The aim of this local festival is to build the highest and most complex human tower, up to 10 people storeys high. And of course, the other goal is to not fall to accomplish this towering achievement. Depending of the complexity of the figure, the group will win less or more points and if the tower collapses, they get few or 0 points.

To resume, the juries give first a higher score to the “castells cargados” (only raised tower) or to the “castells descargados” (raised and dismounted tower) then they deduce penalty points based on different criterions like the complexity, if they have failed one time...

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Raised tower means that the group has been able to build the tower and they get the lower score. Raised and dismounted tower means that the group has built and removed the tower without falling so getting the higher score.

If you want to know a little more and to see a video, check my topic Castell, human castle. If one day you decide to see it by yourself, be there the first sunday of october and to read the full program, check its official website (only catalan).