We arrived at Via Laietanea — one of Barcelona's larger avenues — at about 6:00, just as the sidewalks were filling with families. The first event of the evening was the correfoc infantil, and most of the spectators were accompanied by small children. We weren't entirely sure what this meant — we just knew it involved children and fire. God bless the Spanish approach to parenting. As soon as the first shots of sparklers sounded through the air, parents rushed to bundle their kids in sweatshirts, scarves, hats, and in some cases, ski goggles.
At first all we could see were shooting sparks in the distance. We were quickly enveloped my a running mass of kids and adults waving sparklers and showering us with fire and sparks. The only possible way to understand what was happening is to see the pictures:
Children as young as five or six were running through the street, wielding their sparklers. For the spectators, the goal is to run through the sparks, jumping up and down in time with the beat of the marching bands. The hour-long parade is comprised of all of the different correfoc troops — each has its own outfit and pyrotechnic speciality. When we saw a protest against EU safety laws regarding fire earlier this month, it was all of these groups who marched in the manifestación. I'm not entirely surprised that the EU is questioning the safety of correfoc, though I did not see a single person, tree or sidewalk go up in flames.
At about 8:30, just as the sky was getting dark, the full-size correfoc began. This time, all bets were off as sparkler-shaking teens and adults pelted their sparks into the crowds and dragon figures shot fire from their mouths at the spectators.
There is no experience I can possibly even draw a parallel to — running through the flames of correfoc (yes, I participated) is an event that stands alone.
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