Festa major de Sant Andreu de Palomar

Activity dates

Dates de celebració

End of November and beginning of December in the Sant Andreu de Palomar neighbourhood, Sant Andreu district

Feast Day: Sant Andreu, 30th November

Sant Andreu

Sant Andreu de Palomar is a historical centre in what is now the Sant Andreu district and it kept its municipality status up until 1897, when a Royal Decree made it part of the city of Barcelona. Because it was an ancient village Sant Andreu has its own particular identity, which it expresses by maintaining many traditions, especially in the festa major, the main festival.

Another of the neighbourhood's distinguishing features are its rich and varied associations. It has many hundred-year-old organisations, like the Centre Cultural els Catalanistes and the Casal Catòlic de Sant Andreu. The majority of the associations and organisations are actively involved in arranging the wide range of cultural, recreational and sporting events in the festa major.

Each year, the start of the festival is marked by the Esclat Andreuenc, a festive "explosion" showing off the neighbourhood's popular culture. The enormous gegants, the trabucaires with their blunderbusses, the demonic diables and the dancers of the Esbart Maragall all take part. This dance group also organises the Sant Andreu Dansa show, where all its sections show off their dances. The Sant Andreu devils' groups, which have always been numerous in this neighbourhood, get together to arrange the correfocs, the fire runs.

Reason

Sant Andreu is the patron saint of the parish which was first settled around the 11th century. Over the years the name was maintained, even though in the 19th century the predominantly rural village became a town of workers and craftspeople. The name Palomar comes from the huge number of dovecotes that there used to be in the village.

About festivities

Highlights

Esclat Andreuenc. This display of popular culture on the first day of the festa major is organised by the Germandat de Trabucaires, Geganters i Grallers de Sant Andreu collective. As well as the trabucaires, who fire blunderbusses, and the enormous figures of the gegants, the festival involves other organisations from the neighbourhood, like the dancers from the Esbart Maragall and the devils' groups, the diables. Everything begins with a cercavila, a procession around the streets, then there is a passada de lluïment, a walk full of light, and it all ends with the final dances.

Despertada. On the Sunday of the festa major the residents of the area get an early wake up call, a despertada, to let them know the big day has arrived. In Sant Andreu the despertada is three-pronged, because it includes the grallers, playing their traditional reeded instruments, the Trabucaires de la Germandat, with their blunderbusses, and the  devils of the Satànica de Sant Andreu. Early in the morning the groups concentrate in Plaça d’Orfila from where they walk through the neighbourhood streets causing a rumous with their trabucs, gralles and firecrackers.

Cercavila gegantera. Sant Andreu's gegants, the giant festival figures Andreu and Colometa, host one of the most significant cercaviles geganteres, procession of giants, in the city. It normally takes place on the Sunday of the festa major and is very busy because it is the final outing of the season for the Barcelona's giants.

Sant Andreu Dansa. The Esbart Maragall dance group is a historical organisation for promoting dance which was set up in 1931. Each year for the festa major it arranges a dance festival to show off all the sections of this organisation.

Correfoc. Sant Andreu has a long tradition of colles de diables, devils' groups, and because of this the  correfoc, fire runs, have always been an important event in the festival. At the moment there are two very active groups in the neighbourhood: the Satànica de Sant Andreu and the Diables del Mercadal Infernal who organise, respectively, the correfoc adult, for grown-ups, and the correfoc infantil, for kids.

Interesting features

Interesting features

Sant Andreu's two smaller giants, Colom and Coloma, are rather odd pieces of festival imagery, because they combine human and animal parts into a single figure: they have a human body and the head and wings of a bird. In fact, they look like pigeons to honour the neighbourhood's name, which refers to the huge number of dovecotes that were previously found there.

Supplementary information

Organisers

Comissió de Festes de Sant Andreu de Palomar.