Gràcia is sworn in to build a "trench" against the overcrowding of the festival.

BarcelonaOnce again this year, the Vila de Gràcia neighborhood is divided these days between residents who flee the neighborhood to avoid the hustle and bustle of the festival and those who are deeply involved to prevent the depersonalization of a tradition also threatened by overcrowding. The latter welcomed the festivities with the opening speech this Thursday night. In a very protest-filled square in the Vila de Gràcia, writer and art historian Maria Garganté emphasized the importance of the festival reinforcing the sense of community and becoming a "trench" against overcrowding.

In a speech with a marked anthropological accent and culminating with Vicent Andrés Estellés's verse "What counts is the awareness of being nothing if one is not a people," Garganté spoke of the festival as a feature of identity and community, but also as a "transformative experience" that can help overcome conflict, "debate, and disagreements." Her own speech has been peppered with references to conflicts such as the genocide in Palestine, housing protests in Vallcarca, and overcrowding in tourism.

All of this has coincided with a highly contentious square, where protests by Barcelona's lifeguards on strike these past few days have coincided with complaints against urban planning in Vallcarca, gentrification, the arms trade with Israel, and in defense of Catalan. A critical climate that was accentuated in the brief speech by the first deputy mayor of the City Council and district councilor. As happened last year, the Socialist Laia Bonet was greeted with resounding boos.

Minutes before the official proclamation, in fact, Bonet had been indirectly featured in the traditional alternative proclamation, where, in a humorous tone, a group calling itself the Gracienc Putaespanyista Movement simulated the councilor's kidnapping. At water gunpoint, they warned they would spray tourists again, and held a person with a bag over their head bearing a photograph of Bonet. They presented their demands to Mayor Jaume Collboni if he would release her. These included prohibiting entry to the festival if people don't speak "level G of Catalan" and that the "quiet night" be moved to La Mercè and not held in Gràcia.

The proclamation was the starting gun for a festival that this year recovers popular activities after the crisis from last year, when the clash between the Colla Vella de Diablos de Gràcia and the Coordinadora de Colles de Cultura de Gràcia led the district to ban fire events. Some of the new features introduced last year to try to reduce the festival's overcrowding remain in place, such as holding a "quiet night" on Monday and delaying the awards ceremony in the decorated streets until the last few days to avoid overcrowding.

This Thursday, in fact, the festival-goers were still working against the clock to get the streets decorated before the official start of the festival on Friday. This year, 23 streets will compete to dethrone Mozart, last year's winner. The decorations will once again be one of the main attractions of a major festival that will also feature lots of music and activities for all tastes, and this year aims to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the second municipal independence of Vila de Gràcia.

No metro in Joanic

As always, the festival will be celebrated with an eye on the sky, although this year the forecast predicts that it won't be necessary to suffer from rain, but it will be hot, with scorching temperatures this weekend. One of the challenges this year will be mobility. The metro will operate continuously from 5 a.m. on Friday until midnight on the 17th, but the closure of Line 4 due to roadworks keeps the Joanic stop, one of the busiest these days, out of service. In return, for the first time it will be possible to reach Gràcia's main festival by tram via Diagonal.