Tortosa’s Renaissance Festival ends on a high

The 23rd edition of the annual Renaissance Festival in Catalonia’s southern town of Tortosa ended this weekend on a high, with better attendances than ever. “We are very happy, we have had performances of the highest quality that were sold out,” said mayor,  Meritxell Roigé. In all, this year’s edition attracted some 200,000 visitors.

The success of the event shows how Tortosa’s Renaissance Festival has become one of Catalonia’s most popular historical festivals, turning the southern town into the country’s artistic and cultural capital for one weekend every year. Despite the poor weather over the weekend, all but one of the festival’s activities went ahead.

Roigé also remarked on the festival’s international profile, with more visitors from abroad attending the event every year, both individuals and organized groups, and in particular tourists from Russia. The mayor also pointed out that despite the streets being full of people watching an average of 60 performances a day, no significant incident was reported.

Among the shows and performances that attracted most attention this year was 'Meraki', a new circus-based show seen by 1,500 people, the play 'La visita de l'Inquisidor', which took place in the town’s Jewish quarter, the 'Corrupció i Poder' tour of Tortosa’s Renaissance past, the perfume-making workshops, and the nighttime visits to the town’s cathedral.