La Merce Festival in Barcelona

La Merce is an amazing time to be in Barcelona! But I could see how it could impact an already quite short 1st visit to the city.

The gothic quarter is sure to be extra busy, with Placa de la Merce in the lower section, lots of events at Placa Sant Jaume, and the correfoc going down Laietana. If you're willing and able to relax into the festival and enjoy whatever you come across, staying there could be great. If you're intent on seeing "the sites", you might be more comfortable moving up to the eixample.

I’d engage in as many of the festival’s activities as possible rather than take a tapas tours. It’s been a number of years, but we thoroughly enjoyed the festival. Many of the activities take place by the cathedral, Plaza Jaume, and the surrounding streets. A complete guide to this year’s activities is online to give you an idea of events.

NONO on HOHO!
Go with flow of festival.
Walk the streets, enjoy the festival treats.
Forget about being a tourist, become a local.
Take a deep dive into learning how to enjoy the festival.
Hold with Sagrada, be sure and book online reservations.
Scheduling serendipity presents a great opportunity to create wonderful travel memories.
Enjoy!

I agree that you should seize the opportunity to enjoy the festival but be sure to nail down tickets for La Sagrada Familia.

One of my favorite activities in Barcelona is just walking around and looking at the architecture. That's something you can do as the festival swirls around you. For me the highlights were the medieval architecture in the Barri Gotic and the modernista buildings, most of which are in the Eixample district. Don't miss seeing at least the exterior of the Palau de la Musica Catalana, which you should find yourselves quite near at some point.

Barcelona is very walkable, plus it has a useful subway and buses. Even if the festival were not going on, I would discourage the HO/HO option there. When I arrived at Placa de Catalunya in 2015, I walked past the HO/HO stop on the way to my hotel. There was a huge line of people waiting to board and no bus in sight. It was obvious that all those people were not going to fit on one bus.

Don't worry about what you don't see. You'll be back.

Yes I agree with others, take a back seat to just being another tourist and become a local for a few days! La Mercè has 100s of events spread throughout Barcelona's squares, streets, museums, and parks. This is something that we put on for ourselves, not just for tourists and is a great opportunity to experience our Catalan culture, at least for a few days. The best part it's free!

From this year's festivities https://www.barcelona.cat/lamerce/en

We did HOHO bus in Barcelona in 2015 during a one day cruise shore excursion and I would not recommend it. Long wait to get on. Once you get on, better to just do the whole tour and avoid line-up to get back on. At least half of the seats are lousy. Wait until people get off and then move to better seats upstairs. Then you risk sunstroke and want to go back downstairs. The bus just keeps going except for scheduled stops and traffic. You can get lots of crooked shots for your photo album.

If I got the chance to stay in the middle of a festival, I would take full advantage of it. We are flying to Barcelona in 3 weeks when there are no events during low season.

Thanks, everyone and thanks jaimeelsabio & carlos for the links! I will keep checking to see what's planned for 2023. I would love to see the the castellers and just enjoy the festival. My husband and I spent a few days in Barcelona several years ago and this sounds like a great opportunity. This is our friends' 1st trip to Europe and they have some mobility issues, which is why we were thinking about the HOHO bus. We will be sure to make time for some festival events.

We were in Barcelona during La Merce this year, and it was a highlight of our Spain trip (which we are wrapping up this week). We saw parades, music and dance performances, the fire walk, etc. Highly recommend.

gacllc1997: Glad to hear you enjoyed the festival! We've decided to book a guided tour with the Sagrada Familia site, but otherwise just enjoy the festival. We'll just go with the flow and have a great time!