It is, without question, the most amazing aspect of a street festival we have ever been to. Now, to be fair, I have not been to Mardi Gras, or that festival down in Key West, but Carrefoc has to blow the those away. As much as we love Semana Santa, Carrefoc is even more amazing because we were right in the middle of it all!
Carrefoc involves drums and demons, dragons and fire. And they shoot the firework sparks right at you. It was intoxicatingly dangerous and fun at the same time.
But first, I need to get through some other stuff first, so I will do that in a couple of quick paragraphs.
The rain had stopped by the time we woke up from our naps. Finally, we woke Maddy up around 5 pm, and headed out for more of a walk about the old city. We showed her more of Barri Gotic and El Born. Then, we all realized we were hungry, so we went for what turned out to be tapas dinner #1 that day. Oh, but in between we earned tapas dinner number two!
We arrived at our favorite Cava Bar, El Xampanyet, about ten minutes before it opens at 7 pm. There was a line already. Upon opening, we all filed in quickly, and we were able to get a table. From there the service was immediate. We got a bottle of Cava, which Maddy enjoyed (Carol and I already knew we liked it), and some of the tapas -- the anchovies in vinegar, the bread with tomato spread, and a plate of jamon (of course). The place is small and raucous, and was a good set-up for the fire walk.
From there we walked over to Via Laietana, where the Correfoc was just getting started. There had been a street fireworks parade for the kids done by the junior Diables (Devils with fireworks), but they don't actually shoot the fireworks at the crowd.
For the adult one (adult because it is more dangerous), we were advised to wear a hat, long sleeves, and long pants. Oh, and safety glasses, but somehow I missed that part. Other, more veteran people, had donned all sorts of safety glasses.
For a while we listened to the drummers on the back of a large truck. They were impressive, and probably numbered 15. They banged out stirring, impressive tunes. Up the road we could see the fireworks starting. There were masses of people, but somehow we got right near the truck.
Guys were walking through the crowd selling beers from plastic bags. I felt a beer -- it was cold. They actually used ice in the bag -- Europe is entering the 20th Century!
(Editor's Note: Uh, Glen, it is the 21st Century. Blogger: I stand by my observation -- cold drinks being better than room temperature drinks is not a new thing.)
So I bought two small beers (that was the size) at one Euro each for Maddy and I. Cold beer for $1.10, delivered to us street side. That was pretty good!
The truck of drummers. Very cool.
This gives you a sense of the crowd.
And then came the main event. The fireworks steadily came down the road, closer and closer to us. Suddenly, we ended up in the middle of the road, with demons to the left of us and devils* to the right of us, shooting fire at us from both directions. The sparks would come raining down on us. I felt some on the back of my neck, and Carol and Maddy each had small spark burns on their hands.
(*No actual devils were involved, instead it was people dressed in costumes. It was quite a production. It did strike me as weird that "devils" were a featured part of the festival dedicated to the patron saint of Barcelona!)
Fireworks from afar.
As the demons approached, you could see them
firing into the crowd on either side of them.
As we were in the middle of the street, we
got hammered by the demons on both sides of us.
Google tell me that while the festival originated in 1902, the Carrefoc started in 1978. Here is a link to some background on the Carrefoc, and it has a video to give you some idea of the crazy fun. Carol took a video, but I can't get it to upload on the blog.
When the demons got too close, we had to turn away and duck to protect our eyes and faces. We caught a bit of a break, because just as some of the devils got to us, they had to reload, so we sometimes missed the most sustained assaults. I'm not sure how long we could have held out otherwise.
It was pretty chaotic. A lot of the time I put
my camera down and just celebrated being in
the middle of the craziness. So the pictures
aren't the best, but the time we had was the best!
Each devil comes from a specific neighborhood association, and is supported by numerous folks, including people who reload the fireworks, people to guide the demons, and, impressively, drummers marching along behind them.
This devil was just reloading.
Angry cat. This gives you some sense
of the totality of the fireworks.
A moment of calm as the devil nears.
There were also guys NOT in demon costumes firing fireworks/sparks at people. It was crazy -- especially as they aimed the fireworks right at us. Carol was fine with the demons, it was these guys she did not like.
Cool dragon, shooting fire.
This pig looked angry, so we named him
"Angry Pig." Don't say we are not creative.
As you can tell, it was reloading time!
They just kept coming wave upon wave. Finally, Carol decided we had enough, so we took advantage of a break in the action during a reload, pushed our way to the sidewalk, and exited the scene. It was wild.
We reeked of gunpowder and loved every minute of it. We headed to our 10 pm dinner reservations at Bar Brutal, found our way there without using GPS, and dined on fabulous tapas and toasted our fun with a great local wine. I'm pretty sure this was the night Maddy fell in love with Barcelona. And for a good reason.
It was a spectacular night!
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