La Mercè 2026: dates, programme and what to expect
Last updated 29 July 2026
La Mercè 2026 runs from Wednesday 23 September to Sunday 27 September. Barcelona's own festa major and the biggest thing in the city's year: several hundred events over five days, most of them free and outdoors, from castellers and correfoc to the BAM and Música Mercè concert programmes. Shanghai is the 2026 guest city.
What it is
La Mercè is Barcelona's festa major: not a neighbourhood's festival but the whole city's. It runs for five days around 24 September, the feast of the Mare de Déu de la Mercè, patron saint of the city. The council describes it as a festival of festivals, and that is the most useful way to think about it: several separate programmes running at once under one name, with something in the region of five hundred activities between them, nearly all of them free and outdoors.
The patronage dates from 1687, when Barcelona suffered a plague of locusts, put itself in the Virgin's hands and, once the plague lifted, had the city council name her its patron. Rome took two centuries to ratify it, in 1868. The first civic festa followed in 1871, and the version that set the pattern for festa majors across Catalonia was the one held in 1902. What you get now is the traditional Catalan repertoire done at full scale, plus a music festival, plus a street-arts festival, plus an open-doors day across the city's museums.
The programmes inside it
Cultura popular. The traditional core, and the reason to come if you only come once. Castellers building human towers in Plaça de Sant Jaume, gegants and capgrossos parading, sardanes, the bèsties de foc, and the correfoc, which at La Mercè's scale is a serious piece of street theatre rather than a neighbourhood run.
Mercè Arts de Carrer, known as MAC. Street arts across the Parc de la Ciutadella and other open spaces: circus, acrobatics, large-scale outdoor theatre. Free, and the easiest part of the festival to take children to.
BAM and Música Mercè. The music. BAM is the city's independent and alternative showcase; Música Mercè is the broader free concert programme. Between them they put on well over a hundred concerts across several sites, with artists from around thirty countries in the 2026 edition.
The guest city. Each year the festival invites a city and gives it a strand of the programme. For 2026 it is Shanghai, marking twenty-five years of twinning between the two cities and the first time an Asian city has been invited. More than a hundred artists are involved, from Shanghai itself and from Barcelona's own Chinese community.
The piromusical
The festival closes with the piromusical: fireworks choreographed to music over the Font Màgica de Montjuïc, watched from the Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina below Plaça d'Espanya by a crowd in the hundreds of thousands. It is the single most attended event of the Barcelona year.
If you want to see it properly, get there early, expect the metro to be overwhelmed afterwards, and accept that you will be leaving on foot for the first twenty minutes whatever your plan was. The view from higher up Montjuïc is quieter and the sound is worse.
Where it is
La Mercè is not one neighbourhood's festa but the whole city's, so it happens in several places at once: the old town around Plaça de Sant Jaume for the traditional programme, the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Fòrum for the music, Montjuïc for the closing fireworks, and the Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina below Plaça d'Espanya for the crowd that watches them.
Metro: Jaume I (L4) and Liceu (L3) for the old town, Espanya (L1, L3, L8) for Montjuïc, Ciutadella | Vila Olímpica (L4) for the park.
In 56 days. La Mercè opens on Wednesday 23 September and runs to Sunday 27 September.
The programme, day by day
Every listing below comes from the council's own event feed for the festa, 106 records in total, with titles rendered into English. Times are as published by the organisers and can move on the night.
Sunday 20 September
Wednesday 23 September
Thursday 24 September
Friday 25 September
Saturday 26 September
Sunday 27 September (closing day)
Practical
It is free, and that is the point. Almost the entire programme, concerts included, costs nothing and needs no ticket. A handful of items sit outside that: the Cursa de la Mercè has an entry fee, and some indoor venues limit numbers. Everything in the street is open to whoever turns up.
Where to be. The old town around Plaça de Sant Jaume for the traditional programme, the Parc de la Ciutadella for street arts and families, the Fòrum and Montjuïc for the larger music stages, and the Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina for the closing fireworks. These are far enough apart that you should pick two, not five.
Getting around. Jaume I on L4 and Liceu on L3 for the old town, Espanya on L1, L3 and L8 for Montjuïc, Ciutadella | Vila Olímpica on L4 for the park. The metro runs all night on Saturdays and until 02:00 on Fridays; on the other nights it stops at midnight, which catches people out after a late concert.
Crowds are the real constraint. This is the busiest week of the Barcelona year, hotels included. The correfoc and the piromusical both draw crowds large enough that getting out afterwards takes longer than getting in. If you are bringing small children, the daytime programme in Ciutadella is a different and much calmer festival.
Correfoc rules. Cotton clothing, long sleeves, closed shoes, hat, mouth shut. There is a children's correfoc earlier in the evening which is genuinely designed for them; the adult one is not.
Museums. The city's municipal museums traditionally open free over the festival weekend, which is the cheapest way to see the ones that normally charge. Check the programme for which and when, because the list changes year to year.
Official information at barcelona.cat/lamerce (English)
The rest of the calendar
Festa Major del Poble-sec ran 17 to 26 July 2026; Festa Major de Gràcia runs 15 to 21 August 2026; Festa Major de Sants runs 22 to 30 August 2026; Festa Major de la Barceloneta is expected 25 September to 4 October 2026 (dates to confirm). The complete festa majors guide has the full 2026 calendar, and What's On in Barcelona covers everything else in the city this week.
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