Best Festivals in Barcelona!
During the year, there are a lot of different events organized in Barcelona. From impressive music festivals to themed festivals such as carnival, in this buzzing city you can find every kind of event you like. These amazing activities will make your Erasmus experience even more spectacular. Here you will make memories forever and meet new people who maybe will be your friends forever. The most festivals start in spring because the weather gets better, that’s why we recommend you to live in Barcelona for a whole year or start in the second semester, so you don’t miss out on this ones.
In this article, we give you some of the best festivals that Barcelona hosts. So, put on your dancing shoes, grab your friends and enjoy the best festivals in Barcelona!
Sonar
Sonar Musicfestival is known as one of the most famous music festivals in Europe. Every year, during the first weekend of June, thousands of music fans from all over Europe travel to Barcelona for this spectacular electronic music festival. It hosts a lot of diverse artists from all kind of music styles but the main style is electronic music. Here, you can expect bands, DJ’s and performers from the genres dance, techno, dubstep, house, electronic beats and many more! Sonar is a city festival that takes place on different locations in Barcelona, Sonar by Day is at a different locations than Sonar by Night and in the past Sonar by Night is already organized at the Fira Gran Via and Sonar by Day at Fira Montjuïc.
The most famous artists that visited Sonar in the past years are De La Soul, DJ Shadow, Dubfire, John Hopkins, Justice, Marco Corola and so on. Sonar lasts 3 days and the ticket price for 3 days and 2 nights is only €165. Besides Barcelona, this festival also takes place in Reykjavik, Mexico, Capetown, Tokio and Stockholm.
We can guarantee you that you should definitely not miss this amazing event, otherwise you will regret it!
Ticket price: €165
Date:First weekend of June
Location:All around the city
Primavera Sound
Primavera Sound is one of Europe’s greatest alternative and indie music festivals. The annual festival has a varied lineup of different styles such as alt-rock, electronical music, indie rock, underground house and techno, that’s why it attracts more than 100.000 visitors, of which many hipsters.
In the recent years, the lineup consisted of different well-known artists such as Frank Ocean and Solange, Slayer, James Blake but also not so famous artists. This is because the festival also tries to provide a platform for the starting artists to give them the opportunity to grow and to become more famous. For this reason, the festival is one of the world’s biggest influencers of the indie and alternative music genre.
The festival site is directly at the sea, in the architectural Parc del Forum and the Edificio Fórum, a triangular building in front of the park, in Barcelona. The price for tickets vary from 145€ for a full festival ticket to 80€ for a day ticket.
Ticket price: From €80
Date: Between the end of May and the beginning of June
Location: Parc del Forum and Edificio Fórum
FIB Benicassim
Benicassim Festival or Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (FIB) is an international music festival that takes place in Benicassim, a city at the east coast of Spain that is situated between Valencia and Barcelona. The festival runs for four days in the middle of June. Every year it attracts, thousands of music fans from across the whole continent.
In the past, Benicassim has already hosts a lot of world famous artists such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Weeknd, Florence + The Machine, Major Lazor and many more. As you can read, the music style of this festival has a very variating lineup consisting of multiple genres with the biggest names in all music genres, from rock and indie to rap and electronic. The lineup starts every day from the early evening to the early morning. So, during the day the visitors can just take some rest in the sun and at night enjoy the music they love.
What makes this spectacular event even better is the fact that they care about the well-being, the environment and the ecological footprint by collaborating with charities such as Save the Children and manage actions to reduce the ecological footprint of the festival to the bare minimum.
Ticket price: From €149
Date: Middle of June
Location: Benicassim
Carnival Barcelona
Every year Barcelona hosts carnival, this is a week long programme with many festive events and parades. The carnival dates change every year, depending on the lunar calendar. In Catalan, carnival is better known as ‘carnestoltes’. It is an ancient tradition that is founded in the 14th century.
During this festival, you can enjoy different parades with performances and vehicles decorated in diverse themes. But also contests about the best outfits, the best decorated vehicles and many more. Everyone in the city is dressed like a particular figure or character and the whole city turns into a festive scene. The activities during the festival are spread across the different neighborhoods of Barcelona. Each neighborhood organizes their own parades and festivities.
Carnival is celebrated throughout Spain and another city that is really worth a visit during this festival is Sitges. That’s why Erasmus Barcelona also organize a trip to Sitges during carnival. In this way, you can enjoy the best of both worlds!
Ticket price: Free
Date: Between February and March
Location: All neighborhoods in Barcelona
Stay tuned for our upcoming events at our website and Facebook page, we hope to meet you soon at one of our events!
