Plaça de les Cols square experienced a top-level Sant Magí on Wednesday, with four teams offering a performance without any falls and with various historical records. Xiquets del Serrallo and Colla Castellera de Sant Pere i Sant Pau signed the best performances of their history. The Serrallo team completed the classic eight for the first time, with the 4d8, the 3d8, and the 2d7, and Sant Pere i Sant Pau unloaded the 5d8, the 4d8a, and the 3d8. Two performances that confirmed the great moment of the Tarragona teams.

There are squares that are small in size and, on the other hand, have enormous capacity to build castles. The Plaça de la Vila del Catllar is one of them. This Saturday, however, the Tarragona square has gone even further: it has been the scene of an unprecedented performance. The three groups have put four gamma extra constructions on the table each and have completed an afternoon of maximums at the gates of Sant Fèlix. The Castellers de Vilafranca and the Colla Vella have completed their four gamma extra. La Jove de Tarragona has unloaded two and loaded two more. The result is unprecedented: never before had three groups managed to gather four gamma extra in a single performance.

Tarragona is already experiencing the countdown to the Sant Magí festival. The city's four groups are facing the final days of preparation with rehearsals and tests that will finalize the programs they will present on Wednesday, August 19th, in the Plaça de les Cols. The event, starting at noon, will once again bring together Jove, Xiquets, Sant Pere i Sant Pau, and Serrallo for a festival with very different objectives but a common denominator: reaching the highest possible level in one of the most important events of the Tarragona summer.

The squares of Valls and Llorenç del Penedès have left a weekend that confirms the good moment of the casteller world, despite the difficulties with which some groups arrived. At Firagost, the Vella and the Joves have overcome absences and doubts with four extra-level castles. For their part, in Llorenç del Penedès, the Jove de Tarragona, the Joves and the Nens del Vendrell have completed a solid day without falls.

This Tuesday marks twenty years since Mariona Galindo's death; a name that remains alive in the memory of the Capgrossos de Mataró, but also of the entire casteller world. To pronounce it is, even today, an exercise in memory, respect, and affection. At just twelve years old, Mariona was part of a generation of children who experienced castells with the enthusiasm, responsibility, and joy of those who had found a second family in the group. No one could have imagined that the summer of 2006 would end up becoming one of the most painful pages in casteller history. But this tragedy also accelerated profound changes in castells safety: the helmet for children, which was already being developed, went from being a project to becoming a reality. And immediately.

When the Festa Major of Riera de Gaià arrives, the colors of the shirts take a back seat. Castellers de la Joves de Valls, la Vella, els Xiquets de Tarragona, els Xiquets del Serrallo, els Nois de la Torre, els Castellers d'Altafulla or other groups from the region take off their usual identity for a day. They put on a checkered shirt, tie their sashes, and form a pinecone under a single name: els Espigolats de la Riera.

The Feast of Our Lady of the Snows confirmed this Saturday that it continues to be one of the major events on the casteller calendar. On the tenth anniversary of its consolidation as a 'plaça de deu' (a square with ten-level towers), the four teams came out determined to show their best cards. Each pursued different objectives, but all opened the performance with the peak they have reached this season, on a day of extremely high level that ended with the Castellers de Vilafranca signing the best performance ever seen in the Vilanova square.

The Santes festival in Mataró this Saturday has once again shown why it is one of the essential events on the casteller calendar. It did so with all possible ingredients: top-level human towers, torrential rain that forced the performance to be interrupted, and an emotional tribute to Mariona, the young woman from Capgrossos who lost her life twenty years ago after an accident during this very festival.

There are moments that a group waits for years. And there are those who wait for generations. Los Xiquets del Serrallo have had to wait 38 years to write this page. Thirty-eight years of journey, of rehearsals, of falls, of getting back up and of pursuing a goal that for a long time always seemed a little further away. But one day it arrives. And when it arrives, everything makes sense.

Extra range recital and return of the mattresses to the nine floors

The Plaça del Pou in Altafulla has once again become the epicenter of the casteller world with a top-level Diada de les Cultures, marked by the second major showdown of the season between the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls and the Castellers de Vilafranca, as well as the return of the Xiquets de Tarragona to the nine-story castells. In a day commemorating the 25th anniversary of the diada, the four participating teams offered a high-voltage performance that confirms the excellent moment the casteller world is experiencing at the start of summer.

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There are seasons that are remembered for the castles achieved and others for the path that must be traveled to reach them. Els Sagals d'Osona wanted to record this journey with Aixecar-se, the documentary they produced together with Canal Taronja and which was presented on June 28 at Espai ETC in Vic. The audiovisual offers an inside look at one of the team's most special campaigns, in which collective effort, emotions, and perseverance culminate in a season that is already part of its history.

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Els Minyons de Terrassa have been working for a long time to make castells an activity open to everyone. This commitment has now translated into the Acompanya'm project, an initiative developed jointly with Prodis and Escola Heura, which aims to make both the group's social headquarters, Cal Reig, and the experience of living a castells performance into fully cognitively accessible spaces.

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After the great level shown by the Xiquets de Valls for Sant Joan, the Castellers de Vilafranca arrived in Tarragona with the challenge of demonstrating that, this season, they are also prepared to aim for everything. The greens did not fail and completed a top-level performance, discharging three extra-category constructions: the first tower of 9 with folre and manilles of the season, the 4d9fa, and the pillar of 8 emmanillat. They rounded off the performance by discharging a new 3d9f.

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The Castellers de Barcelona have experienced one of the most special weekends in recent years with a tour of Switzerland that combined a historic feat, the promotion of Catalan culture, and the sponsorship of the Castellers de Lausanne. The expedition consisted of around 200 people – 180 of them in uniform – and they turned the Helvetic country into the setting for a journey that goes far beyond the castells.

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The Castellers de Barcelona made history this Thursday by completing a 3 of 7 at an altitude of 3,454 meters, at the Jungfraujoch station in the Swiss Alps. The structure, crowned next to the building known as Top of Europe, becomes the documented highest-raised castell.

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The Plaça del Blat in Valls has something that escapes any rational explanation. Call it magic, tradition, or simply the effect of bringing together the two groups of Xiquets de Valls at the kilometer zero of the casteller feat. Whatever it is, Sant Joan of 2026 is already part of history. The extreme heat has not prevented the square from once again becoming the stage for one of those days that, over the years, will be remembered.

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Sant Joan is synonymous with the start of summer, as the saying goes. It's a time for fireworks and parties that last until dawn, for coca and cava and, why not say it, also for great human towers. Because yes, speaking of human towers, the arrival of June 24th marks a turning point in the season. The calendar enters a new dimension and the groups begin to show their best cards. Valls and Tarragona will once again concentrate a good part of the attention of the human tower world in two events that, year after year, serve to gauge the state of form of the groups and begin to outline the great objectives of the summer.This year, however, the tempos have advanced. Before reaching Sant Joan, we have already seen several groups that have managed to build the basic nine-story castles and, even, some premature incursions into the extra range. All this suggests that the main formations will arrive at the end of June with more work done than in other seasons. Despite this, the festivals of Valls and Tarragona continue to maintain their specific weight within the calendar.The first great Valls duel in the Plaça del Blat

La Colla Vella and La Colla Joves will first meet on the night of June 23rd in Plaça del Blat with the traditional Completes performance, a day that preserves all the essence of the old-style human towers and usually offers the first clues about the intentions of both groups. Less than 24 hours later, the same venue will host the great Sant Joan performance, an event that year after year marks the start of the strong part of the human tower season.In Plaça del Blat, the quintessential stage for human tower rivalry, Colla Vella and Colla Joves arrive with important aspirations. The 'rosats' have had a convincing start to the season and have progressively broadened their range of constructions. The work done with the basic nine-level towers allows them to start looking towards other objectives and face Sant Joan with several options open. The 5d9f continues to be one of the structures that generates the most anticipation, but rehearsals also hint at the possibility of seeing other top-difficulty constructions such as the 7d9f, the 4d9fp, or the pd8fm.The situation of Joves is different, but equally promising. The reds have advanced with more caution during the first weeks of the course, consolidating pieces before making the leap to the big challenges. Now, however, the time has come to accelerate. The group from Gassó street is working with an eye on superior constructions and with the will to present themselves at Sant Joan with everything. The 2d9fm and the pd8fm appear as some of the most outstanding objectives.Tarragona's groups want to bring premieres for Saint John

In Tarragona, the festival also arrives loaded with attractions. The Colla Jove is the one that currently presents the most solid credentials. The lilacs have completed a very consistent start to the season and recently achieved the earliest magical triplet in their history. With the basic castles of nine fully consolidated and the pd7f already debuted, all eyes are now on the 2d9fm. If the rehearsals in the coming hours support it, those from Cós del Bou could become the first group of the year to debut this construction.

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Quiet weekend on the casteller calendar before Sant Joan, although with solid performances and some notable movement.

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Pregnancy and motherhood represent an inevitable pause for castellers, but the real challenge often comes later. Regaining physical fitness, reorganizing family schedules, managing breastfeeding, or overcoming the feeling of missing important moments of childhood are, like in any job, some of the obstacles that appear on the way back to the square. A reality shared by many women in the casteller world and which, often, goes unnoticed behind great collective achievements.

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For weeks now, the casteller world has been breathing a clear sensation: the teams have started the season at a very high level. This Sunday, in El Vendrell, this intuition has finally been confirmed with facts. The Diada of the Champion Teams of the Castells Contest has been the definitive proof that we are facing one of the best season starts in recent years, with records that recall, and in some cases surpass, those of 2016. And most significantly: by June 7th, the first gamma extra unloaded of the season have already been seen.

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