Festa de Sant Medir

When: March 3
Where: Gràcia district, Spain
Cost: Free

Sweet-toothed tourists and fervent locals gather in Barcelona’s Gràcia district for the Festa de Sant Medir every March 3.

A colourful parade of floats, flags, costumes and horses winds through the streets, while tonnes of sweets are thrown from the decorated carriages into the crowds.

The parade originated in the 19th century as a pilgrimage in honour of Santo Emeterio, or Sant Medir.

A baker who was living in the newly opened Gran de Gràcia fell very ill one year, and vowed that if God would cure him, he would make an annual pilgrimage to the hermitage of his patron saint, Sant Medir, located just outside Barcelona on the way to Sant Cugat.

After he recovered, the baker was true to his word, and to announce his pilgrimage he would bang a drum and hand out sweets.

Every year more and more friends and neighbours would join him and they formed the first colla of the Sant Medirfestival.

A colla is a group or club, and today there are around 30 colles that participate and organise the annual festivities, which end with a massive firework display in the Jardinets de Gràcia.

Fly to Barcelona direct with Vueling or fly to Girona with Ryanair.