Mass festivals for Sant Joan in Barcelona are back
Full beaches to celebrate the shortest night of the year, the festival of Sant Joan, in Barcelona. The first without restrictions after two years of the covid pandemic. The Urban Guard warned this week of the expected massive influx, as large as in 2019, concentrated in the usual celebration areas such as Barceloneta beach.
The night has been marked by the precautions taken to prevent fires, which have led many municipalities to limit bonfires or even ban pyrotechnics on the shortest night of the year.
The first shortest night of the year, without restrictions after two years of pandemic, has involved one of the greatest uses in security and mobility among the festivals of rigor. In Barcelona, six large bonfires are organized, added to some smaller ones, and in various parts of the city popular dinners are held with countless pyrotechnics and bonfires, accompanied on most occasions by music and parties.
In addition to some squares and gardens, the beaches were another of the busiest settings in the city and that is why the City Council has made special use of some 400 officers from the Guardia Urbana to avoid problems of coexistence in the city of Barcelona.
Likewise, it is the first festival of Sant Joan that is celebrated without restrictions after the covid pandemic and that comes after an intense episode of fires in Catalonia. In this sense, the Deputy Mayor for Prevention and Security of the Barcelona City Council, Albert Batlle, asked this Thursday that precautions be taken to avoid fires in areas near the Collserola natural park and the Montjuïc mountain.
The end of the party on Barcelona’s beaches will be at four in the morning, when the Guàrdia Urbana clears the sandbanks and at six the cleaning services come in. With the aim of leaving the area in conditions for bathers who come in the morning.
Balance in Catalonia
On the other hand, the festival of Sant Joan has once again filled squares and streets in Catalonia, after two years of the pandemic. Marked in several places by the restrictions on firecrackers and bonfires due to recent fire episodes.
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The Firefighters have responded to 464 calls during the night, of these 240 for vegetation fires (urban, agricultural or forest) and 174 for other types of fires (containers, vehicles, housing or industry). These data are higher than those of the 2021 verbena, in which 68 notices were attended in the same time slot.
The 112 has reported that up to 11 p.m. it has received 1,107 calls corresponding to 539 incidents, without specifying what type.
The Generalitat has activated a large device mobilizing 2,400 Mossos d’Esquadra agents and reinforcing the Fire Department, Agents Rurals and 112 emergencies.