The best summer nights that Ramon Madaula remembers have always been on a porch. "Whenever I think of summer nights, I think of a porch. It's a space that allows you to have dinner, chat, play cards…", says the actor. Of all the porches that have been in his life, one of the ones he remembers most is that of a farmhouse they rented for a couple of summers in Ibiza, twenty years ago. "I remember those nights as some of the most beautiful of my life, with my wife, my daughters, and some of my daughters' friends. A very pleasant breeze passed through the porch of that house, we were almost alone on that side of the island, and at night you could hear the cicadas. The girls were at a very beautiful age, they were about 12 or 13 years old, you could already talk to them, we played cards until late and had many fun times together", Madaula recalls.

The most special summer night of Araceli Segarra's life was also one of the most terrifying of her life. She was 20 years old and had three months of summer freedom, which she spent between Ireland and Kenya. In Ireland, she was working at a YMCA, and in Kenya, she went with some friends, with the aim of climbing Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in Africa after Kilimanjaro. The mountaineer remembers that experience as one of the most impactful: “We slept halfway up the wall and had a serious setback: our little stove fell out of our backpack, and then we couldn't melt snow. When we faced the return, we had been a day and a half without water. My companions wanted to go back to where we had slept the night before, which was closer, but there was no water, and I decided to go alone to base camp, where I would find water, even though I would have to walk a few more hours. We separated, and I spent all those hours walking alone at night through Kenya. For me, it was a transformative night, I faced many mental obstacles, and I feel it made me very strong. It was a very tough night, during which I was afraid: of not remembering the way, of someone coming and finding me alone... And at the same time, it was very beautiful. I remember arriving at base camp and throwing myself into the lake as if I were one of those leopards that drink water like crazy, without purifying the water or anything.” 

When Bàrbara Mestanza was a teenager, she was "obsessed with her period". "I was fifteen and still hadn't gotten it. I remember changing and the other girls looking at me strangely, I had no breasts, no pubic hair, nothing. I had been going to the doctor for two years to see if there was any problem, and they always said the same thing, it will come. Meanwhile, I prayed every night to wake up the next day and have grown breasts".

There is a summer night that the writer Laila Karrouch will always remember: the first time she returned to Morocco after emigrating with her family to Catalonia when she was only eight years old. “We left the country in 1985 and in 1988 we had finally saved enough to be able to visit family again. That first night was very special, I remember a lot of joy and a lot of tears, especially from grandma, and I remember the taste of watermelon, which was very sweet. In Morocco we didn't have a fridge and in the evening we would put the fruit in the little window to keep it fresh. The fruit was always delicious,” Karrouch recalls.

Ramon Mirabet had been playing on the street for years when life took him to Glenfinnan, in the Scottish Highlands. “I slept in a train carriage in the middle of the woods, alone, and there was a very small TV in the driver’s compartment – he explains–. One day I turned it on and the Estrella Damm summer advert came on. I heard it and thought: one day it will be my music that plays in the advert.” Years later, when he had already made a name for himself on stage, he received the commission: “Do you want to record the song for this summer’s advert?” I still remember my answer: “I’d been waiting for that message for a long time!”

The first time Remei Sipi put on a sweater she was 16 years old. “It was when I arrived in Catalonia. Before, I had lived in a country, Equatorial Guinea, where there were no summers or winters, there was a sunny season and a rainy season, but it was always hot,” explains the writer, who still has a very vivid memory of the walk she took in the rain to go to school. “My friend would come to pick me up and to avoid getting wet, we would cover ourselves with banana leaves,” she recalls.

The summer nights that Sheila Quero, singer of the group Maruja Limón, remembers most are those spent around Sant Joan with the whole family at a campsite in Sant Pol de Mar, where they vacationed every season. “On Sant Joan night we would set up a giant table and all the surrounding families would gather. We spent hours singing, enjoying, and sharing. I was little and it seemed wonderful to be able to go to bed so late. The sense of community was immense, I remember we would fry sardines and set off fireworks. From June to September, my brothers and I had the opportunity to live wildly among the pine trees and the beach, enjoying the Catalan coast, which is wonderful,” explains Quero.

Ada Parellada isn't interested in summer nights "in the towns on the Catalan coast that have become shopping centers at all." "Forget Cadaqués, give me western Catalonia, which is still free and where authentic things still happen," she claims. "You go to Les Garrigues and you still find authenticity there, doors that don't lock, the sepulchral silence at three in the afternoon because everyone is home napping, the neighbor who arrives and parks in the middle of the main street, and the couple of kids who defy the scorching sun and play football".

Some of the most special summer nights in Judit Neddermann's life have been at Palomares beach, in her hometown, Vilassar de Mar, during the main festival. The most memorable night of all is celebrated at the end of June with a popular sardine feast. “There are embers and everyone makes their own sardines, you have the drizzle of oil, garlic and parsley, and there is also burnt rum. People eat sitting on the beach with towels and sarongs, there is a concert of habaneras and the night says goodbye with a fireworks display. Everyone is happy and with that incipient early summer tan,” details the singer, and confesses: “I try to go every year, but sometimes concerts come up and I can't. It's one of the few nights that if a concert comes up, I feel bad, because I regret missing it.” 

For Care Santos, summer is not a time of year, it is a place: the beach of Santa Susanna in Malgrat de Mar. “This beach is the territory of my memory,” assures the writer. She started going there when she was little with her parents and siblings, who were teenagers. “I was a flat dweller, I was like a cat, and summer was absolute freedom and revelry. We arrived for Sant Joan and left for La Mercè: for me it was a paradise”.

There is a night in the life of actress and screenwriter Adriana Fuertes that she would love to turn into a film. It was summer and the inhabitants of Santa Margarita de Montbui had been excitedly talking for days about the visit they would receive from comedian Eugenio for the town's main festival. "I was little and I didn't really know who he was, but I have very clear memories of that night, of the people's joy and the sense of community, and of the smell of tobacco and grilled sardines. Back then we didn't need large infrastructures, the neighbors brought wooden chairs from home and in a moment a small theater had been set up. I remember the adults laughing at Eugenio's jokes, and the children playing in the background, and the pasodobles and the karaoke afterwards, where we sang Eva María se fue, buscando el sol en la playa".

Comedian Víctor Parrado loves to travel and one of the best summer nights he remembers was during a getaway last year to the city of Porto with his partner. “I like small cities more and more, walking through the alleys of the old town, going into shops… In Porto I was amazed by the Ribeira neighborhood and all the cellars next to the Douro. I remember a moment of having a delicious Porto wine, with background music, as dusk fell. You know those moments of… ‘Oh, how calm I am, how good I feel, I don't need anything else right now.’ Well, that’s how I was,” recalls the comedian.

A thing, my dears, do you know what Alba Riera's favorite season is? Summer, of course. "In the summer I have an incredible glow up, I change my personality, I am much happier. Summer smells of jasmine and the sea, everything is possible and everything can be memorable if you want it to be. Summer has that thing that from the moment it begins you know it will end and you live it with much more intensity. When my alarm goes off in the morning, I think: 'One day less until summer'," she assures.

Valeria Castro has experienced euphoric summer nights, with massive concerts and memorable successes. Even so, when she thinks of a special summer night, a daily one on the island where she was born, La Palma, comes to mind, accompanied by one of her childhood friends, contemplating the sunset on the beach where they have swum since they were little, Puerto Naos.

There is a summer night that Eloi Cordomí will always remember, the one on the last day on the island of Cadaqués where he celebrated his wedding with his husband, Xavi. “Instead of going on our honeymoon, we rented the island of s’Arenella for six days to be with friends and family,” explains the meteorologist. He had known the island a few years earlier, had been recording a report there, and had fallen in love with it. “I knew that if I ever had a big party, I would have it there,” he recalls.

For Doctor Bonaventura Clotet, it is indisputable which is the best night of the year: the night of the Gala People in Red, the great solidarity event to raise funds for biomedical research. It is in May and for him it is the best way to open the doors to summer, with a company difficult to surpass: Sílvia Abril, Toni Acosta, Dj Genna, Joan Dausà, Amaral, DJ Fede Sardà, Manel Vehí, Nandu Jubany, Martina Klein, Àlex Corretja and Eduardo Casanova are some of the personalities who have accompanied the doctor this year in this event that is so marked on his calendar. "It is a very important night for me, very magical and very special," says Clotet. 

For Bely Basarte, summer nights are one of the greatest wonders of being alive. “Summer nights are my favorite time of year since I was little. The smell of a summer night drives me crazy, it gives me incredible zest for life,” assures the singer from Madrid. When she thinks of summer, a multitude of memories come to mind: family trips in a camper van, Madrid squares at dawn, festivals, concerts, and long conversations with friends as the sun rises.

Txabi Franquesa defines himself without complexes as "the summer Grinch". Heat distresses him, sleeping without a fan is impossible for him ("it has to be a ceiling one!") and, in addition, he associates this time of year with tours, sticky sweat and drops in blood pressure. It is coherent, therefore, that the summer night he has chosen to share is memorable precisely for everything that went wrong. "Although I laugh about it now, at the time it seemed like one of the most humiliating moments of my life," he recalls.

For the influencer Àlex Tous, the best summer night isn't just one, it's practically all the Sant Joan eves he has experienced in Cadaqués. It's a completely established family tradition: going up there with friends, celebrating his mother's birthday, and extending the party until sunrise. “It's a super nice day for the whole family and friends,” he assures.

The most fun summer night Charlie Pee remembers seemed, at first, doomed to disaster. She and a group of friends had taken the last flight of the day from Barcelona to Mallorca to start their vacation, but a breakdown put an end to their plans. “They changed the plane for another that had fewer seats and we were left out,” she explains. Result: she, two of her friends, and about twenty other people were left behind while most of the group of friends landed calmly in Mallorca.