Barcelona prepares to welcome the Kings

Barcelona is ready to re­ceive the Three Kings with all the solem­nity and pomp the oc­ca­sion de­mands. As is cus­tom­ary, the Kings will ar­rive in the Cata­lan cap­i­tal from the sea, aboard the Santa Eulàlia sail­ing ship, around 4pm. Two hours later, with each King on a float, they will begin their tour of the city, start­ing out from the Marquès de l’Ar­gen­tera av­enue and end­ing around 9pm on the Francesc Fer­rer i Guàrdia av­enue, at the foot of Mon­tjuïc moun­tain. Dur­ing this time, there will be major cuts to traf­fic, with of­fi­cial ad­vice being to use the metro sys­tem if pos­si­ble, on which more trains will be in op­er­a­tion to meet the ex­pected peak in de­mand.

The Barcelona cav­al­cade is one of the city’s key pub­lic spec­ta­cles, fea­tur­ing cir­cus acts, dance and music, as it makes its way through the streets. This year’s pro­ces­sion is com­posed of 12 main blocs and will fea­ture 1,157 par­tic­i­pants, in­clud­ing more than 200 pro­fes­sional dancers and ac­tors along with 400 stu­dents of var­i­ous artis­tic dis­ci­plines. Also tak­ing part will be more than 300 vol­un­teers from a va­ri­ety of as­so­ci­a­tions, and some 200 peo­ple cho­sen by lot­tery from more than 1,900 ap­pli­ca­tions to make up the Kings’ ret­inue. An es­ti­mated seven tonnes of sweets will be thrown to the watch­ing crowds through­out the royal tour of the city.

Among the nov­el­ties this year, King Gas­par will debut a new float with an eye-catch­ing de­sign, while the four-metre high pup­pet known as El Senyor Hivern i el seu Gran lli­bre de les Pe­tites Coses, which has al­ready been seen in a num­ber of events in Barcelona over this Christ­mas pe­riod, will head the pro­ces­sion. Mean­while, an­other giant fig­ure, El Car­boner, will bring pro­ceed­ings to a close, re­mind­ing the lit­tle ones that they must be good if they hope Their Majesties will stop off at their houses to leave them gifts tonight.