The most crowded concerts of this year's Mercè festivities will not take place on Avinguda Maria Cristina, next to Plaça Espanya, but in the Zona Universitària, on Carrer Menéndez Pelayo. This was announced on Tuesday by the Commissioner for Culture and Creative Industries, the socialist Xavier Marcé, at the presentation by Mayor Jaume Collboni of the poster for the next Barcelona fiesta, this edition signed by the cartoonist and illustrator Chamo San, and of the herald, a role that the writer Najat el Hachmi will assume this year.
The Commissioner of Culture pointed out that the transfer of the recitals organized by several radio stations very popular among young people mainly responds to issues of mobility. Barça will play next season at the Olympic Stadium, and the truth is that it is better not to overload the surroundings of Montjuïc even more.
"In the University Zone, on Carrer Menéndez Pelayo - the commissioner insisted - we already have a designated space where coaches used to park. In addition, there we will not have problems with the neighbors. We want to continue decentralizing the Mercè festivities." We'll see what the people who live around the new location say when the concerts are over and the young people start to disperse here and there.
In any case, it has not escaped anyone's notice that the venues on Avinguda Maria Cristina have been dying of success for several years now. In the last edition, after the festive performances, a young man was stabbed to death, half a thousand people who did not want to end the revelry confronted the police, a few raided a delicatessen and took several hams...
And the year before, the place became the stage for the biggest macrobotellot ever seen in this city and without the need to set up a concert! Then, there were still the restrictions of the pandemic... Unfortunately, those bottles ended up with numerous acts of vandalism.
The truth is that, party after party, the enclave gradually became a symbol for an entire generation of Barcelona residents. These concerts by so many artists who are so popular among teenagers and very unknown among adults constitute the last party of the summer or, depending on how you look at it, the first of the year.
You couldn't miss it, you couldn't go back to class without a good smorgasbord of battles about it. What always happens in the end in these kinds of celebrations is that sooner or later they also end up attracting a much less civil and much more disturbing audience. It also happened on the great esplanade of the Forum.
Another change in location will be that of Mercè Arts de Carrer, which goes from the Ciutadella park to the Nord station and some corners of the Eixample district. This year, Plaça Reial will once again host concerts. In addition, the Passage dels Til·lers de la Ciutadella will host the gastronomic contest Fira Terra i Gust. The Grec theater, the Pla i Armengol gardens, the Plaça Mayor de Nou Barris, the Avinguda de la Catedral, the Bogatell beach, the Rambla del Raval will reprise their roles... The Sarau's budget is close to 4.1 million of euros, more or less the same as last year.
The guest city of this Mercè will be Kyiv. The Ukrainians are very excited and are already finalizing the gift to Barcelona, two giants, Vladimir and Olga, who will be announced at this year's traditional Toc d'inici. Chileans will also be protagonists of the festivities, in order to remember President Salvador Allende.
The event officiated yesterday by Mayor Collboni in La Virreina also served to reveal the festival poster and the identity of the crier. The bet of cartoonist and illustrator Chamo San is, to say the least, risky. Year after year, the designated artists, especially when they really think about it and skip some convention, tend to suffer criticism, short shrift, voracious. No wonder the author was nervous. Something will be sniffed.
Because San gives us a big castle so vertical that it's actually a bunch of posters. A castle full of anonymous and at the same time somehow familiar faces, faces specific to these festivities, and also others who are part of Barcelona's popular culture..., some recognized, some forgotten...
In this case we are talking about Ocaña, Miguel Gallardo, Teresa Pàmies, Margarida Xirgu, Enric Castan, Pinotxo, Ramon Casas, Peret, Bernardo Cortés... A couple of terms ago, when the last of the aforementioned had recently died, the government of mayoress Ada Colau assured that it would do something to preserve the memory of the Barceloneta singer-songwriter. Last term he undertook to hang a plaque in his memory. But he never did. In any case, it should be noted that the selection of personalities on the poster is the sole discretion of the author. They all say that the City Council was not told who to put.
And, above, this castle that in some way also tries to repair certain injustices rises in black and white. Surely more than one will consider it practically an insult. But this black and white does nothing other than pay tribute to Barcelona's underground cultural tradition, a rogue and slightly decayed urban tradition that once gave life to such alternative and macaroni characters as Makoki and Makinavaja. And why did they draw these characters in black and white? Because there was neither money nor time to color them.
Mayor Collboni also announced the name of the next herald, the writer, philologist, mediator and, among other things, columnist Najat el Hachmi. Collboni himself proposed it because, in a way, this woman is a sign that very different cultural traditions can glimpse meeting points without renouncing their essences, and these messages in favor of understanding are always timely.
Hachmi said that he is very excited about the commission, that he did not hesitate to accept it, that he still does not know what he will say at the Saló de Cent. "So many things can be said about Barcelona, it's such a literary city...". To the loudmouths, there are many who also end up criticizing them without contemplation.
