A street arts production based on urban dance and rap with 3D animations, audiovisual effects and pyrotechnics will be used this year to present the Christmas lights that decorate the streets and squares of Barcelona. It is called Solvern and is a joint creation of the company Aktionstheater Pan.Optikum from Freiburg (Germany) and the Barcelona urban dance company Iron Skulls. They will be waiting for you on 28 November at 6 p.m. on Passeig de Gràcia between Ronda de Sant Pere and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes.

This is a free activity, with no limit to the number of places, as it takes place in the open. However, the usage of lasers and pyrotechnics, among other effects, is not suitable for people who are particularly sensitive to light. The production, specially created for the occasion, involves companies from different countries and artists from different generations, all reminding us of the same thing: that even in the darkest moments and the most impenetrable nights, we can always find a light (from the winter sun or perhaps the Christmas Star) that brings us hope.

Directed by Sigrun Fritsch, with a choreography between Catalonia and Germany created by Luka Putniņa, Jānis Putniņš, Kien Trihn and Iron Skulls and a stage space created by the Catalan scenographer Llorenç Corbella, the 28 performers of Solvern will pass alternately through five stages set up on Passeig de Gràcia, one main stage and four secondary stages. Large screens on each stage broadcast the choreographies, which will be accompanied by 3D animations (by Jānis Putniņš), lighting effects, smoke and pyrotechnics (by Klaus Ulrich). 

Dancers are: Andrea Rubio Alonso, Anna Gispert Campistrol, David Maestre Planas, Eva Pascual Cippelletti, Joel Claros Cayero, Tigist Alemany Costa, Lara Soler Torres, Clara Giambino Mozuratis, Arunas Giambino Mozuraitis, Christophe Kerbourch, Marģers Vanags, Cosima Dudel, Leonie Fritsch, Daniel Vera Suárez, Moisés Gordo Gómez, Luís Ángel Muñoz Santiago, Agnès Sales Martín, Selamnesh Ortega Gómez, Gustavo Leonel Rojas, Aina Torres Soler, Pau Arnal Ferrer, Diego de la Rosa Nieto, Irene Baeza López, Manuel Cabeza Gómez, Rafael Arenas Rubiano, Idoia Rodríguez González de Langarica, Adrián Herrera Rubias and Anna Sagrera Conde.

All in all, it will be an immersive and multidimensional visual experience that will mark the beginning of the Christmas illumination. This year, there will be more than 110 kilometres of lighting, with fourteen signature buildings illuminated. Take a good look at the illuminated garlands in Plaça de Catalunya and Gran Via, as next year they will change, renovated thanks to a competition organised by ADI-FAD. On the other hand, in Passeig de Sant Joan, the decoration with allusions to manga created last year by the Brosmind studio (Juan and Alejandro Mingarro) will be maintained. And, if you go to Torre Baró, you will find some garlands that evoke the famous film El 47. Depending on the day, the Christmas lights will be on from 5.30 pm until 1 am (from Sundays to Thursdays) or until 2 am (Fridays, Saturdays and holidays). In addition, there are 24 illuminated totems or figures between 2.5 and 3.8 metres high scattered around the city’s ten districts: there are deers, gift boxes, Christmas trees and other figures that you’ll have to discover as you go along.

If you don’t want to miss the Solvern show or Barcelona’s Christmas illumination, come to Passeig de Gràcia on Thursday, 28 November in the afternoon, but first check the information on the Barcelona City Council’s Christmas website.