Here's a list with the vertical-align:baseline; best and most well-known festivals in and around Barcelona. They're listed in chronological order so it's easy to select a suiting festival for the period you're staying in Barcelona. And don't forget that the city of Barcelona during Spring and Summer is turning into a real 'Fiesta city'.

Carnaval in Sitges

Carnival in Sitges is an overwhelming and colorful happening. During this event, the normally quiet town shows a whole different face. Carnival, that begins on the 3rd of March and lasts until the 9th of March, fills the streets with dressed party people and painted faces. Despite the city has a small number of 26.000 permanent inhabitants, Sitges can accommodate over 300.000 people on the busiest days. The city is known for its big tolerance against people out of all layers of society and is a famous gay-destination. Sitges is internationally more and more known for its ‘against-cultural’ image, something that even dictator Franco during his life couldn’t suppress. There are little places where people can party better than here, and there are little better moments to do that than during Carnival. The festivities are well prepared and include a great variety of different activities. Above all this city has two faces: one of a tolerant, intellectual and artistic community and one of a paradise for party people. After Lent mainly the background:transparent; second face shows: around 40 floats will be driving the streets filled with dancing, happy people. All under a sky lightened by all the carnival fireworks.

Carnival begins on ‘Jueves Lardero’, fat Thursday, and lasts for a week. The most exciting festivities will take place at Sunday and Thuesday. On these days the locals parade the streets with a lot of style. About 3000 people are participating the parade, some in dazzling costumes of feathers, others as stylish drag-queens. Carnaval in Sitges is more than just a party, it’s an opportunity to completely let yourself go. For more information take a look at Sitges own site.

Semana Santa: Spain’s Holy Week

Semana Santa means: ‘Holy Week’, and begins on Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos). It lasts until Monday, also called Easter Monday. The Semana Santa is also the implemented name for the Good Week, the week before Easter, that is being celebrated outrageously. On Palm Sunday godfathers traditionally give their godchildren palm leaves, often decorated with all kinds of sweets. On Palm Sunday people also get a Mona de Pescua, a kind of pie made of chocolate that is decorated with all kinds of figures and eggs. During Easter you can buy these  Mona’s everywhere around the } city. Generally with Easter people give each other a little present, mainly chocolate.

Like the Christian tradition declares, there may not be eaten meat on the Friday. In Barcelona this tradition is being transformed to ); another pleasure for the mouth, that is: delicious bacalao, prepared in different ways, among which: bacalao with chickpeas, bacalao with potatoes, salted bacalao and so on. Besides these dishes you will also find fritters, French toast, honey beignets and Easter bread.

Processions

In Catalonia, just like in the rest of the country, they celebrate these holidays with ceremonies and processions  given that Spain is a country with a long Catholic tradition. They show the suffering of Christ and Maria in the streets. The most spectacular ones are to find in Andalusia, especially Sevilla. Typical are the big statues that are being carried around on big gilded platforms (paso’s). Normally every procession has a paso with a portrait of the suffering of Christ and one with the sad Maria. In Barcelona it isn’t that effusive as in Sevilla but a lot of festivities are also being celebrated here.

Distinctive to other parts in Spain is the procession of ‘the Virgin of the Sorrows’, that is being organized without a priest. This weird procession looks like the one in Sevilla and came into existence in 1977 in the quarter of l’Hospitalet. During the body { years the procession became a lot better but the essence is still unchanged.

During the Easter weekend it is hard to find any shops or museums that are open. Shops and museums are normally closed on Good Friday, Palm Sunday and Easter Monday, except for the shopping mall of Maremagnum in the harbor. For more information about processions and the agenda take a look at this site.

La Diada de Sant Jordi

La Diada de Sant Jordi means: ‘the day of St. George’. The event takes place every year on the 23rd of April and biggest in Barcelona, people used to celebrate the solstice and ‘give power’ to the sun that from that moment on was getting ‘weaker’, given that the days are getting shorter again.

The solstice is being celebrated all over the world in a more or less way. In Spain, every region has its own way of celebrating it. Typical for Catalonia and its areas is making bonfires, for example burning old furniture and throwing fireworks. There are concerts, performances and neighbor parties outside. On the beaches of Barcelona there are gathering hundreds of thousands young Barcelonese and margin:0; people from all over the world to celebrate the “shortest night of the year”. With dj’s playing music at the Chiringuito-Bars till the early morning you can say the San Joan isn’t a night to get your hours of sleep.

A typical Catalan dish on Sant Joan is the ‘coca’, a kind of pizza filled with cream and decorated with preserved fruit. And of course the cava is being poured richly.

Fiesta Mayor de Gràcia

The different districts and areas of '.