The silence of bullying victims and the avalanche of festivals: what has caught our attention the most this week
My First Festival and the ElPetit festival, among the cultural proposals
BarcelonaThis week we want to recommend a wide range of festivals. You can choose from My First Festival, the ElPetit Festival, the Raval(s) Culture Festival, or the DAU Festival, among others.
We also offer a review of the week's news through Andrea Zayas's comic strip, the section Something to think about and the data and statements that have most caught our attention.
Cultural and leisure activities
Until November 30th
From November 15th to 30th, the 21st edition of the ElPetit festival takes place. The program unfolds across 30 venues in eleven different cities, including Barcelona, Sabadell, Granollers, Sant Cugat del Vallès, and Madrid. The program, comprised of shows, workshops, and art installations, is designed for children aged 0 to 5 and their families. Among the shows are premieres ofWave, from the company La Súbita, which combines dance, objects, light and live music, or from Komunumo, From Electric 28. It's the story of an atypical family community made up of a crazy but caring old monkey, a pair of horses who never have time for vacations, and a playful young laundry bear. You can find the full schedule at www.elpetit.cat.
Until November 23
If you love movies, the 18th edition of My First Film Festival for children aged 2 to 12 is taking place from Saturday, November 8th to the 23rd in cities like Barcelona and Madrid. More than 100 films from 20 countries will be screened, and there will be workshops and film forums. The opening will feature the screening of Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake (Spain, 2025), the first feature-length animated film produced in Catalonia, directed by Irene Iborra, which revolves around empathy, friendship, and imagination. See the full program at Primerfestivaldecine.com.
Board games
Do you love board games? Then you can't miss DAU Barcelona, the leading board game festival, which returns to Barcelona from November 13th to 16th at the Fabra i Coats venue, with its biggest and most ambitious edition in its 14-year history. For four days and two nights, the festival will offer over a hundred activities for families, professionals, and schools: family workshops, expert areas, demonstrations, new releases, and interactive activities that invite you to discover the magic of gaming. New features include a giant new pavilion with 107 game tables, and the addition of the Fandom Zone, a space for meeting board game designers. As always, admission to the festival is free, but space is limited.
From November 6th to 9th
From November 6th to 9th, Barcelona's Raval neighborhood will host a new edition of the Raval(s) festival, with nearly 60 free activities organized by 140 local organizations and groups. With over 20 years of history, the festival fills various spaces in Raval with music, theater, workshops, walking tours, family activities, and artistic interventions. Families and young children will have their own space on Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th morning on the Rambla del Raval, where they can participate in creative and sensory workshops and games. There will also be puppet shows, readings, and music. For older children, on Friday the 7th, the Filmoteca de Catalunya will present short films made by young people from Raval between the ages of 16 and 25, showcasing their concerns and dreams.
Until November 11th
If you have children who absolutely refuse to celebrate Halloween, theme parks offer alternatives that are sure to entertain them. Until November 11th, PortAventura World transforms into a unique setting, featuring amazing characters and a mix of terror and fun designed for all levels of bravery. Among the main new attractions is the premiere of...1, 2, 3… It's Halloween!, a family show that unites Count Dracula and the characters of Sesame Street in a magical story of music, humor and friendship.
10th anniversary
If you've ever had a baby or are currently pregnant, you've surely heard of the Baby Concert, a pioneering project at L'Auditori specifically designed for families with children aged 0 to 12 months, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. This season, it can be enjoyed on the following weekends: February 28 and March 1, 2026, and May 9 and 10, 2026. The initiative is part of a larger, three-stage project that aims to introduce music from the earliest stages of childhood. The Baby Concert is preceded by the Musical Morning for Pregnant Women and the Baby Workshop. Anna Roig Dolz, creator and pedagogical director of the project, has composed a special birthday song that will be performed during the concert.
FilmoXica
FilmoXica continues with the autumn cycle Free booksand gives up part of the family sessions on the November weekend to the proposals of My First Festival, a well-established group of new spectators that this year, among other proposals, takes us Little Amélie, winner of the audience award for best European film at the last San Sebastian Film Festival; Mary Poppins; Seven Chances, by Buster Keaton, and also, with an eye on Palestine, Fleeting dreamsThe story of Sami, a twelve-year-old boy who embarks on a journey from the refugee camp where he lives to Haifa in search of his carrier pigeon. Every Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m.
Regina Young Theatre
Fancy a bit of theatre? Well, Jove Teatre Regina presents Figaro(ck),From the company La Trepa, a musical theater show that fuses humor, social commentary, and contemporary rhythm to rethink what it means to be a revolutionary in today's world. A musical comedy that pits the character of Figaro against the world of the influencers and social media with live music. The show, aimed at children aged 10 and up, will run until November 16th at the Jove Teatre Regina on Saturdays and Sundays at 5:30 pm.
Literary recommendations from Marta Gil, bookseller at El Gat Pelut
From Ben Clanton (Youth).
Narwhal and Jelly leap from the comic book pages into the world of graphic novels with a brand-new adventure brimming with humor and underwater mayhem. It all begins the moment you open the book, because... maybe it's dangerous! Amidst laughter, surprises, and plenty of bubbles, Ben Clanton once again delivers his infallible blend of tenderness and absurdity. Ideal for early readers and all ages who still know how to laugh with their eyes wide open.
Ages 5 and up.
Things that happen (to me), by Andrea Zayas
Something to think about
Lately, schools have been rethinking how they celebrate traditional festivals, in some cases to give them meaning and significance, as with Carnival, and in others, with the aim of inclusion. Some schools have reversed course, returning to celebrate La Mercè or the Castañada after having discontinued them, in an effort to explain their own traditions in the face of the encroachment of foreign traditions, such as Halloween. A thorny issue is the celebration of Christmas. Many public schools replace it with a winter festival to avoid any religious connotations. But festivals are a good way to understand traditions and, therefore, cultures, and not only from a religious perspective. Perhaps learning about our own traditions can also spark an interest in learning about others.
School is a social institution, a place where families build relationships and where neighborhood and community are fostered. One of the values of public schools is proximity, and the authorities always recommend choosing a neighborhood school. This is what the families who enrolled their children nine years ago at 9 Graons School, a newly established center in Barcelona, did. But now the Barcelona Education Consortium has assigned them three secondary schools that are more than 20 minutes away from the school, forcing the children to socialize and spend time outside their neighborhood and surrounding area, while the other schools in the vicinity have been assigned to secondary schools within a maximum of 5 or 10 minutes. This lack of equity contradicts the principles of public education and proximity that the administration claims to uphold.