This year's Piromusical was launched with Estopa, and the duo took advantage of the opportunity to make various musical and cultural announcements. One of the inevitable focuses, for example, was the Muñoz brothers' musical selection, with an eye to a balance between languages. Memories of the previous year, when Rosalía curated the Piromusical and programmed only her own hit, were still vivid. Millionaire, sung in Catalan. Estopa gave more play to the language. He also debuted a song – just as Rosalía had done with Omega–, but in that case it was in Catalan: a rumba titled Camila, sung with The Tyets.

He's capable of making young and old laugh just with his gestures, without words. He plays a dog, as in his last show. Woof, which this Saturday and Sunday at 7 pm can be seen at the Port Olímpic in Barcelona during the Fiestas de la Mercè, or open and close doors, one of the traits for which he is best known. "I've been doing serious humor from Girona to the world for 20 years," he claims. He is Pere Hosta (Girona, 1975), clown, not to call him a clown, which is exactly the same but without the negative connotation we are used to giving him. "It's often said as a put-down: 'Don't be such a clown!'" he reflects. "But being a clown is about being transparent, sincere; reaching people through humor."

This Sunday, downtown Barcelona is preparing to host one of the city's most popular annual sporting competitions: the Carrera de la Merced Bimbo Global Race. Professional and amateur runners will participate in a unique 10-kilometer route, starting on Carrer Aragó, passing Passeig Sant Joan and Avinguda Paral·lel, and finishing in Plaça Catalunya. All proceeds from this year's registrations will go to the Fundació Alzheimer Catalunya.

I saw the poster for Barcelona's main festival, La Mercè 2025, from my laptop in the Boí Valley, where we've spent August for a quarter of a century. I point this out to contextualize what I'm about to explain next. After breakfast, we went for a coffee in Erill la Vall—on foot, naturally; we've never owned a car. The path that runs along the Noguera de Tor has shady areas with ash and hazel trees, and large sunny areas where oregano grows among the ferruginous stone. Upon reaching the small town center, the bell tower rises imposingly yet weightlessly. It's slender, luminous, elemental in the best sense of the word. I've never tired of admiring it. From the terrace of the bar where we were, the morning sun gave it a timeless appearance. I think of it, evoking the poster for La Mercè 2025 that I had looked at a couple of hours earlier on my laptop. It represents everything opposite to this building. The poster image depicts a dark, artificial, decadent world: the dying light of a Weimar Republic cabaret. It must be said that in an appropriate context—a play, for example—it would be a very beautiful and evocative image. It unmistakably recalls the production that the stage designer and activist queer Thomas Jolly performed the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games last year. Regarding the aforementioned poster, Lluís Danés, the author, states on the Barcelona City Council website"When I was commissioned to create the poster for the 2025 Mercè, I understood that they weren't just asking me for an image. They were asking me for a story, an emotion, an invitation to dream together." The statement is more significant than it seems. What is this story? What emotion are we talking about? Are these shared references, or is the invitation to dream together actually addressed to a small minority?

More than 100 free open-air concerts will fill Barcelona during La Mercè 2025, the city's biggest festival, which will take place from September 23 to 28. The Música Mercè, BAM (Barcelona Acció Musical), Acció Cultura Viva festivals, and collaborations with radio stations make up a program spread across 16 stages spread across the neighborhoods. This year, iconic venues such as the Moll de la Fusta, which last year did not host La Mercè events due to the America's Cup sailing competition, and Avenida Maria Cristina are returning. Classic venues such as Bogatell Beach, the Doctor Pla and Armengol Gardens, Ciutadella Park, the Teatre Grec, the Plaza Mayor in Nou Barris, and the Rambla del Raval continue. Performances are planned by groups and artists such as Buhos, Figa Flawas, Mushka, The Tyets, and Maria Arnal, among many others.

The word controversy It's lazy, especially in summer. Four syllables: controversy. When you go for the third one, it's already asleep, please don't give me a little controversy (what an uncontrollable desire for this twin, to end up saying: "controversy"). That's why there has been Controversy over the poster for the Fiestas de la Mercè It's neither hot nor cold. The bishopric has complained that the poster (which I find very pretty and, above all, with very little intention of "arguing") "violates the feelings of those who venerate and respect" the significance of Barcelona's patron saint. They also claim to accept "that the City Council wants to give an exclusively secular tone to the festival," but then they also express their "surprise at the fact that each year the poster introduces the use of religious elements."

The Archdiocese of Barcelona did not like the poster for the 2025 La Mercè Festival. In a statement released Tuesday, the diocese lamented that the poster, designed by set designer and film director Lluís Danés, "irreverently uses various religious forms with the intention of ridiculing the image of the Virgin Mary."