Tourism

The programme will fund eighteen sociocultural projects and events around all city districts in 2023, promoting them and giving them greater dissemination through the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, which will also ensure the selected events are promoted via their own communication channels. The initiative involves an investment of 700 thousand euros, with funds coming from the tax on overnight stays in tourist accommodation, and will promote new attractions for city residents and visitors alike.

Subsidies are for a maximum of 50 thousand euros per project and must help consolidate the calendar of events and activities in the city. Projects must have a potentially international scope, be held regularly and help show the city’s cultural wealth and diversity.

Priority has been given to unique projects organised by social and economic institutions and organisations with a clear link to the local area. They must promote the city and have been held for at least three editions, include sustainability in their conception and management from a social, economic and environmental perspective, and all projects must take place during 2023 or during the first few days of 2024.

The new programme will be rolled out in conjunction with the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, and is another example of how to help redistribute and decentralise the visitor economy, a goal set out in the government measure for the creation of new concepts and content to improve mobility and sustainability in tourism.

Projects and events chosen

• Ciutat Vella: the subsidy is for Festival de Cultura Raval(s), a popular festival to design and create social and artistic action with an anti-sexist and anti-racist perspective, and for BuskeRAI – Festival d’Artistes del Carrer, a free and open-access festival offering music, performing arts, puppets, theatre, circus and dance.
• L’Eixample: support is being given to the 17th Fira Modernista de Barcelona, with free recreational and cultural activities highlighting heritage and introducing modernista buildings in other municipalities and relevant organisations, along with the Ruta del Modernisme de Barcelona. The fair is part of the programme for the local festival in the neighbourhood.
• Sants: funding will go to Sants Tradicat, a fair with 200 stalls offering traditional and local commerce, children’s games, family workshops, stick dancing parades and more, plus Fira Medieval, with activities, gastronomy and a variety of commerce.
• Les Corts: the Festival Circorts, with its programme of fifteen circus shows in different disciplines, seeks to grow through the financial support and install a circus tent which will host part of the programme.
• Sarrià: funding will go to the exhibition “Negre: del dol a la seducció”, presenting a social and aesthetic vision of the use of black in women’s clothing. The Festa de Sant Martí – Jornada del Vi Novell will also receive support to pay homage to the wine-producing tradition on the Barcelona plain, as will Collserola Floreix, a family day with workshops for people to discover flora and fauna.
• Gràcia: funding will help support human towers gatherings, or Diades de Castellers, as well as events which are not as well known, such as the Diada de la Independència, the  Diada de la Salut and others.
• Horta-Guinardó: the Club Esportiu del Futbol Club Martinenc will get support to help organise the Cros 3 Turons – La Diablada, a cross-country run covering the city’s three most important and iconic hills. Funding will also go to the Torre del Suro live nativity scene, an enactment representing a traditional nativity scene where all the participants are people with some sort of intellectual disability.
• Nou Barris: the subsidy is for the 27th edition of San Froilán, a gathering to promote Galician culture with concerts, gastronomy, dance and traditional music. Another subsidy is for Roquetes Fashion, Food & Wood Week, the concluding showcase in the neighbourhood and the city for the workshops organised with local people throughout the year on sewing, DIY and cooking. There’s also funding for the Festival Sopes del Món, an intercultural tasting event involving people of diverse cultural backgrounds and offering a chance to try different soups, in an occasion showing the cultural diversity of this area. Finally, there’s also funding for the Campament Reial, consolidating it as a family visit over the festive period.
• Sant Andreu: funding goes to the Jazzing Festival de Jazz, a fully consolidated musical event in the district with the Big Band de Joves, offering jam sessions, talks and lectures about jazz music and involving young musicians and consolidated artists from home and abroad.
• Sant Martí: the subsidy here will go to the Festival Escena Poblenou, a showcase for multidisciplinary contemporary performing arts and giving support to creations offering new stage languages and dramaturgy.