A piece of a bus shelter fell into the fountains on Avinguda Maria Cristina. Broken glass all over the Palau de Congressos and, even so, the mass vaccination point is still active. Car number plates broken among the glass. These are just some of the traces of the lack of control of a mass street drinking party in Plaça Espanya in Barcelona and its surroundings which, tonight, the second night of La Mercè, brought together up to 40,000 people. A leap in scale compared to the 15,000 on the first night. And a leap in scale, too, with respect to the riots. The gathering resulted in 20 arrests and 43 injured, three of them seriously and 13 with stab wounds. Shops on Carrer Creu Coberta were vandalised and robbed.

Thousands of young people in Plaça Espanya. A full-fledged 'macrobotellón' (mass street-drinking party) that makes a joke out of the one that took place a few weeks ago in the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial. A multitudinous call as a starting signal for La Mercè festivities. The recommendations of the City Council and the health services not to go to the street party, not to gather in large groups of people, to rationalise social interaction, have been of no use. The response of Barcelona's young people is clear: they want to party and this is more powerful than all the recommendations in the world. The image is shocking. Not a needle can fit at the foot of the Torres Venecianes, at the beginning of Avinguda Maria Cristina and all around the first pavilions of the Fira. The entire perimeter of the square, including the central garden area, has been colonised. The feeling is that the whole of Barcelona (and the Barcelona beltway) between fifteen and twenty-five years old is here. La Mercè concerts at the Olympic Stadium and the Teatre Grec have had an effect, and the call to action on the social networks (especially Instagram) has done the job.