Barcelona unveils its 2021 Christmas lights...in May

LACK of forward planning is not something Barcelona city council could be accused of – at least, not in relation to its Christmas lights.

Their design has already been unveiled, barely four months after the last lot came down.

Whilst several of Spain's 'annual' festivals have a 'half-year' version – normally a more low-key event just to keep the spirit alive – it is still nearly two months before a 'half-year Christmas' could feasibly be held, and yet, already, the nation's second-largest city has set its Yuletide illuminations budget.

And it's not even as though Spain takes the northern European approach of stocking Christmas gear in the shops from September or October; although no longer starting barely a week before the holidays, as was the case a decade or two back, festive fare is not usually on sale in the country until the beginning of December or, at the earliest, late November.

But Barcelona's apparent keenness is about making up for lost time: The 'Covid Christmas' of 2020 was far less of a celebration in the country than usual, and deputy mayor Jaume Collboni says Christmas 2021 'has to be one of economic recovery and normality'.

“We want to turn Barcelona's festive lighting into a new icon – for it to be truly spectacular and to carry Barcelona's personal stamp on it,” Collboni explains.

To this end, an additional 24% will be spent on illuminations – giving a total of around €2.06 million – and a public competition was opened in February seeking designs.

The winner is a creation by the firm Antoni Arola Studio, and although pushing the boat out on Christmas lights may not be considered compatible with the fight against climate change, the designers' proposals include LED bulbs only, so electricity consumption should be much less than even in years when the budget for it was smaller.

Strip-lighting in warm colours, arranged in a circle, and destined for the busiest central parts of the city – the Plaça de Catalunya, the Gran Vía, and the C/ Aragó, among others – will be put together in subtly different ways to create 'themed' atmospheres for each location, as shown in the three photographs here supplied by Barcelona city hall.

The Plaça de Catalunya strips will radiate outwards, giving a 'central' feel to the square, whilst those on the C/ Aragó will be arranged in what is known as a 'paralaxis': Depending upon the angle they are viewed from, the shapes are different; close up, they appear to be just diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines, but from a distance, they become stars or snowflakes.

On the Gran Vía, the idea is to make people 'feel as though they are at home', with the strip-lights arranged like ceiling lamps.

The extra funding means the city-centre lights will spread out, for the first time, to the Sant Pere ringroad, the Balmes lights will be extended from the Diagonal to the University ringroad, and additional illuminations will go up on the Vía Laietana, the Paral·lel, in the Plaça Urquinaona, and in the 39 indoor markets, as well as decorative elements becoming more flamboyant and eye-catching in residential zones.

Now that the lighting layout has been designed, the job of actually producing and installing them has to go out to tender, a process that can take several months before the work even starts – hence the decision to run the design contest so early in the year.

In practice, the lights will not go up until the end of November 2021.