Barcelona rings in 2024 with fireworks and drone show

Around 120,000 people celebrated the arrival of 2024 with a massive light show featuring fireworks and drones at Barcelona's Avinguda de Maria Cristina, at the foot of Montjuïc.

Celebrations included pyrotechnics and a light show with some 470 drones that lit up the sky 250 meters above Montjuïc hill. The show was a tribute to Barcelona and its relationship with the sea, according to the organizers Groupe F.  

At midnight, drones formed a bunch of twelve grapes in the sky and twelve short bursts of fireworks marked the chimes, marking the Spanish and Catalan tradition of eating twelve grapes to accompany the first twelve bells of the New Year. 

The organizing company, from France and headed by Christophe Berthonneau, was responsible for the light show and had previously staged New Year’s Eve events at the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and in Kula, Serbia. 

Access to the event was controlled by Barcelona and Catalonia police forces, the Guàrdia Urbana and Mossos d’Esquara.