Barcelona Children’s Festival

The Children’s Festival has been entertaining kids since 1963. This year is no exception, with the festival boasting more than one hundred and fifty different activities of all kinds at the Montjuïc exhibition venue.

One of the main features this year is sport, with a recreation of the Olympic Stadium and the presence of some of Barça‘s footballers. Some of the other attractions include go-karts, ponies, traditional games, video games, concerts, magic shows and a visit from some of the Sesame Street characters from Port Aventura.

Take part in this unforgettable experience; in the numerous sporting, recreational and educational activities being organized at the Children’s Festival, a fabulous fiesta where fun is guaranteed. The best way to teach values ​​such as creativity, solidarity, respect for diversity and the environment. It also promotes the sport and the Mediterranean food. Here you can participate in interactive science activities, recycling or responsible consumption, road safety circuits, workshops on how to care for pets, crafts and drawing competitions.

You can find more information at Festival Website.

Joan Miró: The ladder of escape

Renowned as one of the greatest Surrealist painters, filling his paintings with luxuriant colour, Joan Miró worked in a rich variety of styles. This is a rare opportunity to enjoy more than 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints from moments across the six decades of his extraordinary career. This exhibition is co-organised by Tate Modern and Fundació Joan Miró.

The exhibition also traces an anxious and politically engaged side to Miró’s work that reflects his passionate response to one of the most turbulent periods in European history. Working in Barcelona and Paris, Miró tracked the mood of the Spanish Civil War and the first months of the Second World War in France. It also shows that, behind the engaging innocence of his imagery, lies a profound concern for humanity and a sense of personal and Catalan national identity. Extraordinary works from different moments of his career celebrate his roots in his native Catalonia.

Fundació Joan Miró is located at Montjuic, accesible by Funicular from Parallel station, just in front of Hotel Barcelona Universal. You can reach Fundació Joan Miró also from Plaza Espanya, by bus line 50, stopping next to B-Hotel.

More information can be found at Fundació Joan Miró website.

The whitest party: Sensation Barcelona

After a spectacular world premiere with an audience of 40,000 in Amsterdam in July, the new edition is going to fill the Palau Sant Jordi with people dressed in white and ready to dance to this new festival concept.

On the 8th of October 2011, Sensation will make its return to Barcelona. The venue, Palau Sant Jordi, will be transformed into Innerspace, making it the second city to host Sensation’s latest theme after the premiere in the Amsterdam Arena.

Sensation started in Amsterdam in the year 2000. Since then, over 1,5 million visitors in seventeen countries have experienced what is arguably the world’s most spectacular dance and music phenomenon. Each year, Sensation tours the globe with a completely new show. Consistently taking the acclaimed theme ‘be part of the night, dress in white’ to new heights, Sensation’s aim is to bring a positive message to a growing global audience.

Barcelona will be dressing up in white with Sensation Innerspace, a new, exclusive event dedicated to dance music. Wally López, Sharam, Fedde Le Grand and Mr White are just some of the artists who will be bringing Barcelona the very best in electronic music at the moment. Máxima FM, the media partner for Sensation Barcelona, will broadcast the event.

Allocation near Palau Sant Jordi can be found at B-Hotel and Hotel Barcelona Universal.

The Sants Walk for La Mercè Festivity

The Barnatresc season returns this Sunday, 18 September.

The Sants Walk is, alongside the La Mercè Fun Run, one of the sports events set to kick off Barcelona’s Festa Major or big annual festival.

The 13km walk sets off at 9 am from the Espanya Industrial park, passing through some of the neighbourhood’s streets and part of Montjuïc mountain, including part of the Olympic Ring and the museum and theatre zone.

The refreshments and control points will be located in the Can Ferrero gardens and will be in service from 10 am to 12.30 pm.

As usual in the Barnatresc walk season, no prior registration is required for taking part. All you need to do is turn up at the set-off point at the scheduled start time and produce your official card or, should you not have one, collect the corresponding route map.

During this new Barnatresc season, to help to minimise any waste, refreshment drinks will be served in water jugs.

European Seven Series Rugby Championship in Barcelona

A dozen national seven-a-side rugby teams, the best in Europe, will be facing each other in the European Championship Seven Series in Barcelona on 9 and 10 July.

That means world champions Wales and other top sides like England, France, Italy and Spain, among others, will be at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium on Montjuïc.

Seven-a-side rugby, or “rugby sevens” is a variation on the traditional game of fifteen players. It is a spectacular game, fast, because it is played on a normal-sized pitch and it will be an Olympic sport for the first time at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Barcelona follows Lyon and Moscow as the third of four cities involved in the Championships, which will end with a final round of matches in Bucharest in mid-July.

Rugby F.I.R.A. European Seven’s Grand Prix Series | From 09/07/2011 to 10/07/2011
Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc Lluís Companys -> Pg Olímpic, 17 | Sants-Montjuïc

Montjuïc at Night: Open Music Festival

On 2 July, Barcelona will once again pay tribute to its own home-brewed live music, with a new white night on Montjuïc mountain, Montjuïc at Night, where the best bands from the city’s main music festivals will be meeting up at the same site.

Sonar, Barnasants, De Cajón! Festival Flamenco, Cruïlla BCN, Mas i Mas, BAM. Up to twenty festivals with a highly varied programme that includes some forty performances in every style to suit every taste, from pop to jazz, hip-hop and electronica.

The white night will also offer a taste of the Beefeater In-Edit, the Barcelona International Music Documentary Film Festival, with a screening of two music documentaries.

As usual, the music evening of this fourth edition of Montjuïc at Night will be accompanied by an open night at various museums and mountain venues, such as the CaixaForum, the Fundació Joan Miró, MNAC, the Poble Espanyol and the Teatre Grec gardens.

The festival will kick off at 8 pm and go on until 4 am. For access to some of the mountain stages, the public will have extra public transport and a free bus service until 5 am, connecting Montjuïc Castle to Plaça d’Espanya and Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina with the funicular.

We would definatley stay with you again in the future.

We have just returned from our stay with you and I wanted to write and thank you for a lovely holiday we had.  All your staff were friendly and helpful and made us feel really welcome.  We would definatley stay with you again in the future.

Thanks again
Katie, June 2011

::.:: Hotel Barcelona Universal ::.::

Sardines & Rumba at La Caseta del Migdia in Montjuic

Sea views from Montjuïc mountain, blue fish and a rumba experience!

These are the keys to the success of “Sardines & Rumba“, back this year on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer at the Caseta del Migdia, with the idea of spicing them up in a cheap and fun way.

After cable-car suppers and Alpine fondues the latest culinary event includes a special menu with a salad, grilled sardines, toast with tomato, melon and watermelon, all for 19 euros.

From 22 June to the end of August these suppers will be accompanied by live performances of Catalan rumba from a group called Rumbalà.

.::. La Caseta del Migdia .::.

Hotel Paral·lel: Disponibilità e cortesia

Desideriamo ringraziare per la disponibilità e cortesia mostrataci durante il nostro soggiorno dal personale del Hotel Paral·lel di Barcellona.
Un particolare apprezzamento per le persone che si sono avvicendate alla reception dal 5 all’11 maggio (periodo appunto della nostra permanenza), che si sono sempre puntualmente e precisamente prodigate anche nell’aiutarci in situazioni per noi incresciose. Nello specifico ci teniamo a segnalare la professionalità e cortesia di Joan.

Per questo non mancheremo di segnalare ciò e nell’eventualità di una nostra futura visita a Barcellona di tornare nella Vostra struttura.

Experience emailed by Claudio and Fabrizio, May 2011.

New Exhibitions at Museums of Barcelona

The Picasso Museum is holding an exhibition on artists’ responses to the Franco dictatorship in Spain. It takes as its departure point a series of engravings made by the artist in 1937 entitled The Dream and Lie of Franco.

Montjuic offers explorations into the past: MNAC is giving an exhibition on the 19th-century French Realist painter, Gustave Courbet while the CaixaForum is presenting an archaeological exhibition on the ancient Mexican site of Teotihuacan, whose fame rests on its enormous step pyramids.

If you fancy a bit of thought-provoking photojournalism, then you mustn’t miss the exhibition on at the CCCB featuring photographs taken by Gervasio Sanchez and showing the parallels between forced disappearances under oppressive regimes in South America, the Middle East and Spain.

Next Page »