Sant Josep Oriol Festival 2016

It's time again for the Sant Josep Oriol festival, which is the 'Festa Major' (ie, really big party) of the Pi neighbourhood in the Old City. This year the celebration is that much more special because, after 20 years, thanks to the efforts of so many people and especially the Friends of the Giant of Pi Association, the festival will last even longer (over two weekends), there will be more events and loads of new stuff.

The first weekend features the opening ceremony (Mar 12, 11am) with historian and editor Rafael Català Dalmau, followed by the dance and the parade of the original Pi giants; the traditional Reredos of Sant Josep Oriol (Mar 12, 7pm) at the Santa Maria del Pi church; and the welcoming, parade and dance of the lion and the mule which kicks off in Plaça Sant Felip Neri (Mar 13, 9am).

The second weekend takes the party to Passeig dels Oriols (Mar 19, 11.15am start) with a parade of male giants. Later (6.30pm) there's a show called 'Atracos de Perot el Lladre', which has a giant representing a Barcelona bandit that runs around robbing all the shops in the neighbourhood in order to get some popular hard chocolate sweets that are then given out to the kids. On Sunday morning (Mar 20) after the gralla flute and tamboril drum players have woken up everyone in the area, the Barcelona Falcons will build their precariously formed human towers, and then it's the 'Festa Mayor' parade with groups from all over Catalonia taking part.