Special night tour: Festival of San Juan

Special night tour in Barcelona – Festival of San Juan

The best time of the year to be in Barcelona is on 23 rd June. While you can enjoy the city during the day on an easy bike tour, in the evening you can experience an amazing Midsummer night’s party.

This event is called “Verbena de San Juan/Fiesta de San Juan” or in Catalan “Nit de Sant Joan”. It’s a special night for Barcelona, because this is the shortest night of the year and this is the best time to spend your night on the beach waiting for the sunrise.

The preparation for the local people takes at least a week, they organise their barbeque and picnic for that night, and they buy fireworks and petards. It is allowed to light a fire on the beach only on this night during the hot summer. So families and friends collect wood and newspapers to burn on the campfire.

They also prepare a lot of tapas and drinks to share that night.

There is a dessert that is really popular for this night called “Coca de San Joan”,-

-it is really sweet and worth to taste. They sit around the fire, sing, talk, and dance or have a quick swim in the sea in the middle of the night.

It is unbelievably amazing to be there to feel the vibe of the event. As you sit on the beach and as far as you can see, fireworks appear on the dark sky, you can hear music from all the people around.

People are really sociable as well, it is good to make friends that night because the whole city celebrates together. By 10 pm the beach is full of people but you still don’t feel it to be crowded.

Meanwhile on the streets it is easy to bump into a parade with music and fireworks as well. They dress up in colourful clothes, take their instruments to the streets and play, sing and dance all night.

These groups walk around the streets while actually partying. Everyone is welcomed to join the party and people definitely do so!

If you happen to visit Barcelona in June, do not miss this opportunity!