FESTIVAL FATIGUE

I’ve always thought that autumn in Catalonia has a New Year feel to it. After a long summer of lounging around and recharging the batteries, the return to normal life is tough but also comes with the energy of a reset, with a certain determination to get things back on track. Whether it’s going back to work or school, autumn is a time – even if reluctantly – to put the summer holidays behind us and to roll up our sleeves and get down to business again.

However, I have to admit that this autumn I feel exhausted. It’s not so much due to any ’post-vacation blues’, as the transition from hammock to desk has been relatively painless, the problem is that I’m suffering from a case of what I have dubbed ’festa fatigue’.

That Catalonia has lots of festivals and traditional celebrations throughout the year is rightfully lauded as proof of its vibrant and healthy culture. The country’s fairs and festivals are cultural assets that we should celebrate and safeguard as a society. It’s just that there are so many of them!

I never noticed it so much before, when my children were still small the weekends were always action packed, with football matches and skating competitions, with birthday parties and family outings, and so adding in a ’cercavila’ procession or a local book fair here and there was taken in one’s stride.

However, now that they are grown-up, my weekends are largely my own once more and after a busy week – and particularly at my age – a very welcome chance to put my feet up. Except that come the weekend there are inevitably either gegants or diables, a vermut or sopar popular, a gimcana or fira artesanal, castellers or a festa major, or one of a whole host of other cultural events that I want to support, that I like attending, that my neighbours say they look forward to seeing me at, that my wife wants to go to, and that now being involved with the local government I often have to make an appearance at.

Just to give you an idea of the frenetic activity in my municipality each weekend since the summer kicked off with the Sant Joan’s Eve revetlla at the end of June, we’ve had the Festival de l’Esport, a Sopar del Barri in each of the municipality’s neighbourhoods, a Marató Fotogràfica, the Festa d’Infància i Joventut, the Festa Major (and another festa major in our small village, which is part of but separate from the main town and celebrates its own local summer festival), the Festa de l’Aigua, the Botifarrada Popular, the Acte de la Diada, the Correllengua festival, the Festa de la Verema, and this month we still have the Festa de la Gent Gran, the Anniversari del Grup Excursionista and ’Castaween’, which brings together the Castanyada and Halloween (and so now we’re also importing celebrations as if we didn’t already have enough).

There are a few more celebrations not included in the list above and while I haven’t attended all of them, I’ve certainly done my fair share with the result that I’m now suffering from a serious case of ’festa fatigue’ and, to be honest, getting to the point that if I have to see one more trestle table or one more traditional costume…

Opinion