Over 10,000 Catalan Castellers unite in Valls to build human towers together

Valls (ACN).- On Sunday, Valls experienced one of the most spectacular and unique Castell events. After a ten year wait, over 57 groups and 10,000 Castellers came together to build traditional human towers, magically transforming this city of the south of Catalonia. The presiding Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell explored the symbolism of the towers. "Strength, balance, beauty and a shared desire to rise to a challenge and to make things good," said the minister. Mascarell has pledged to locate the Casteller Museum in Valls and has congratulated the city in organising such an important event for the Casteller community.

All Castellers regions including Northern Catalonia and the Balearic Islands united on Sunday at Valls at the Meeting of Castellers that the capital of Alt Camp organises every ten years. The festivities last for ten days with the first week dedicated to the Casteller tradition, a conference of experts and a Casteller fair, culminating towards the simultaneous human tower-building of 10,000 Castellers.

The day is entirely unique and this year's event has had the highest ever turnout with 57 groups, far exceeding that of previous years. This is a reflection of the multitudes who would not want to miss the historic milestone as well as a message to the world of the tradition born in Valls that is a symbol of national identity in Catalonia. For the Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell, the human castles represent "a fraternity and positive competition."

For the Mayor of Valls, Albert Batet, it is a demonstration both within the country and outside of its borders, that "creating strong foundations helps us work together and better." According to Batet, the city of Valls is proud to be the birthplace of the Castells and is grateful for UNESCO declaring this tradition an intangible heritage of humanity, last November. They see this title as recognition of all the generations that have partaken in the Castells tradition year after year. On his part, Mascarell has pledged to create a Castells Museum in the capital of Alt Camp."Valls wants it, the Culture department wants it and it will happen," said the minister.

On Sunday morning, Mascarell and Batet, accompanied by the Government Delegate to Tarragona, Joaquim Nin, were greeted by the human towers of the host city, Valls, where groups were divided into pairs. Afterwards, everyone filed down to the Fountain of Monxo and the monument of Xiquets of Valls, where they started to create towers together. The event was an hour late, starting at two in the afternoon, but was a grand spectacle. In the first round, the 57 groups built up different towers of eight levels until finally, in the second round, 57 human towers were simultaneously created by all the participating Castellers.