The Moroccan city of Casablanca will be the guest city of Barcelona in the next edition of the Mercè festivities to be held in September, as reported today by the City Council of the Catalan capital.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and the mayor of Casablanca, Mabila Rmili, established a first contact, which has been followed by others between representatives of both cities, which has resulted in the acceptance "with great honor" by the city Moroccan of distinction. This weekend, a delegation from Barcelona City Council traveled to Casablanca to begin defining its participation in this year's Barcelona festival, in which there will be a significant presence of invited artists from the city.
The Councilor for Culture and Creative Industries, Xavier Marcé, and the Mercè technical team will meet with the Deputy Mayor for Cooperation and International Relations, Abderrahim Outass, and with various local performing arts companies.
Mayor Collboni recalled that "the Moroccan community in Barcelona is very important" (close to 16,000 people of this nationality registered in the city) and stated that "we are very happy that Casablanca has accepted the invitation."
The Barcelona councilor has highlighted that participation in the Mercè events is presented as “an opportunity to get to know a culture that is very close to us but that sometimes we do not know adequately." "It seems to us that it is a way of giving protection and "may also help their level of participation in the cultural life of the city to increase significantly."
For her part, Nabila Rmili highlighted that “Casablanca and Barcelona are two cosmopolitan and lively cities that share a passion for culture and creativity. “We have a rich and inspiring heritage, and we are committed to a common path of promoting culture as a fundamental pillar of development.”
The mayor is convinced that "Casablanca's participation in La Mercè will be a unique opportunity to strengthen our ties and share our respective cultures."
Casablanca is one of the largest metropolises in Morocco, a young city that stands out for the vitality of its urban music scene.
The Mercè program, which will be announced in the summer, will offer a representative sample of the culture, street arts and music of Casablanca, which in September will pick up the baton of the Ukrainian city of Kiev as a guest city of Barcelona.
