On April 19, the Commission for Social Rights, Culture and Sports of the Barcelona City Council approved that Kyiv be the guest city of La Mercè 2023, the city’s main festival. The invitation was accepted by the Deputy Mayor for Culture of the Ukrainian capital, Valentyn Mondriivski, who spoke telematically in the commission to thank the proposal. A few weeks ago, the Barcelona City Council sent the offer to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klichkó.

The Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Martí, recalled that “for the first time, we invite a city that suffers from war, with the hope of peace and the spirit of solidarity of Barcelona. We want to create a cultural bridge between the two cities and contribute to helping those who suffer the most.”

Since 2007 with Medellín, Barcelona invites each year to its main festival a city with which it maintains special ties with the aim of presenting its contemporary art scene. This year 2022 will be Rome. The previous guests: Quito (2008), Istanbul (2009), Dakar (2010), Saint Petersburg (2011), Montreal (2012), Vienna (2013), Stockholm (2014), Buenos Aires (2015), Paris (2016) , Reykjavik (2017), Lisbon (2018), Beirut (2019), Barcelona (2020, due to the health crisis) and Havana (2021).