The Esbart Comtal was founded in November 1964 and introduced to the public in April 1965 at the Gràcia chess club, the Unió Gracienca d'Escacs. In its early days, the group gave many performances in France, for example, at the First Lay Congress in Paris, in 1966. In 1968, along with the French National Ballet, they also took part in the "social harmony days" in Thuir (Roussillon), during which they gave dance demonstrations in towns from North Catalonia (Roussillon), Languedoc and Provence. The same year they performed at the Montpellier Doctors' Congress and the Trobada d'Esbarts, a gathering of dance groups at the Palau de la Música Catalana.

The following year the Esbart Comtal left the Unió Gracienca d'Escacs and moved to the Cooperativa de Teixidors a Mà, the handweavers' cooperative. They had to move again, in 1985, to Carrer Santa Eulàlia.

In 1969 they created two new groups, one for children and another for stick dancers, which changed its name to the Bastoners de Barcelona in 1991. The previous year they had organised the Trobada Nacional de Bastoners de Catalunya, a national gathering of nearly 2,000 stick dancers. And since 2000 they have been helping the Bastoners de Gràcia organise a day of stick dancing, the Diada Bastonera de Gràcia.

Their repertoire of traditional Catalan dances includes the "Ball del Ram i el Ventall de Gràcia", the Bouquet and Fan Dance that they revived in 1997, and the Ball d'en Serrallonga de Gràcia, Serrallonga's Dance, which they performed for the first time since 1870 in Gràcia's main square, La Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia, in 2008. Every year their dances form part of Gràcia's festa major celebrations, as well as the city's big festival, La Mercè.