Agenda Barcelona

ANNUAL FESTIVAL MORNING

The floral offering is at 8 am and the Salvo is at 10.30

Plaça de la Mercè (offering) and Plaça Sant Jaume (Salvo)

Route: La Rambla, C. Ferran and Pl. Sant Jaume

If you’ve come to welcome the gralla players leaving Plaça de la Mercè, you will also have seen a group of blunderbuss troupes making a floral offering (8 am). After that, they head to La Rambla and parade with the pops of the blunderbusses to Plaça Sant Jaume, where one of the noisiest events in the Diada will be held. It is a salvo display featuring the city's blunderbuss troupes.

But what exactly does ‘salvo’ mean? It means to shoot into the air in order to warn people of an important event or mark a festive occasion. The tradition comes from the old bandits and the civil defence groups who combated them with blunderbusses, large-bore firearms. There are four troupes in the city: the one from Sant Andreu, the Trabucaires de Perot Rocaguinarda, the Gràcia troupe and and the Sant Antoni troupe.

Warning: we recommend that people with hearing problems or sensitive ears, especially elderly people and children, or those with pets, take precautionary measures at this event, especially with blunderbusses.