The Culture of the Street

In the middle of March, my parents came to Barcelona to visit it me. Fot both, it was their first taste of Barcelona. While they both wanted to see all of the tourist sites and ride on the double decker bus that drives tourists in circles around the city, I wanted them to get a real sense of the culture of Barcelona. To do this, I sent them down Las Ramblas to experience what, for me, as been one of the most interesting aspects of Barcelona culture, street performances.

            Unlike anywhere I have ever been before, the people of Barcelona are always out and about on the street. They seem to be people who do not live their lives behind the closed doors of their homes, but rather live their lives out in the public sphere. This is quite a refreshing way of life after living in the US where a “private life” is the norm. But the most interesting part of this outdoor and public life that Barcelonans seem to live is, are those who choose to work and entertain in the street. Walking down Las Ramblas during certain parts of the days can resemble walking through a fairy tale land. Seeing different people dressed as dragons, or fairies, or famous movie characters is humorous and at times scary, but always mesmerizing.

            The most interesting encounter with a street performer I’ve experienced while in Barcelona thus far didn’t take place on Las Ramblas though, but rather in the square in front of the Cathedral. On a quiet Sunday morning stroll though the winding streets of the Gothic quarter; I came across a small circle of people forming around a man assembling a long metal pole. Intrigued I stopped to view what the commotion was, only planning to stop for a few minutes. I ended up staying for an hour and a half in total to fitness one of the best “free shows” I have ever seen. The man, as it turned out, was an Australian acrobat, who had learned just enough Spanish to be able to communicate with the crowd. He called on volunteers of all ages from the audience, preformed magic tricks, comedy, and eventually preformed a routine of flips and dips and dives on the large metal pole being held up by four volunteers from around the world. By the end of his show there had to have been almost 400 people standing around, enchanted by the man’s strength and talent and cheering like crazy. Along with the 400 bystanders, were also 2 police officers that had been dispatched to break up the crowd that had formed, but even they had become memorized by the performance and had decided to stand and watch rather than break up the crowd like they had been sent to do. As soon as the performance was over, everyone, full of smiles and giggles, applauded like crazy and sent their children running towards him to give him donations. It was one of the happiest moments I have seen in Barcelona. Hundreds of locals and tourists all stopped to watch in amazement what this man was doing. For a brief moment, this one cultural aspect provided by Barcelona connected all people from all over the world, but currently in Barcelona.