Life & Style

Producers of sparkling wine from Catalonia's Penedès region have chosen the brand name 'Clàssic Penedès' to identify their product. This variety is not Cava but rather a sparkling wine produced under stricter regulations to ensure the product is of a higher quality. Wine under the Clàssic Penedès name can only use grapes which are 100% organic and which come from the Penedès wine appellation. Josep Maria Albert, the President of the Penedès appellation, announced that this year the grapes in this region are maturing particularly early and, as of this week, some vineyards are already manufacturing the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varieties of wine. The winemaker stated that this season, due to weather conditions, "there will be between a 10% to 15% drop in the quantity of wine from last year, but, despite this decrease in production, the wine will be better quality".

A new and surprising temporary restaurant, named El Vol Espai Gastronòmic, has opened in Girona, in north-eastern Catalonia, to host some of the best Catalan chefs, such as Joan Roca, whose establishment was named the world's best restaurant in 2013. El Vol is partly suspended over the Onyar River and is a glass and iron structure, transparent and white, which is 20 meters long, weighs 28 tons and is situated in Girona's historic neighbourhood. After just 10 days running, and despite the fact that it only serves lunch and dinner to small groups of 18 customers, it already has 1,100 reservations and some 20 top chefs confirmed to be working there for a few days each during the next year. The new venue is expected to showcase the best of Girona's cuisine and has already sparked much international interest amongst journalists, culinary experts and tour operators from all over the world.

From the 6^th-17^th August, Barcelona hosts the 7^th edition of Circuit Festival, an international event directed towards gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people. The aim of this edition is to promote the festival as an "international meeting point", since 80% of last year's 71,000 participants came from abroad. Furthermore, Barcelona will profit from the €100 million that Circuit attendees bring to the local economy.  The organisers of the festival have prepared more than 50 events for its audiences to enjoy. The main party will take place on Tuesday 12^th August at the Illa Fantasia waterpark in Vilassar de Dalt, a town around 20km north of Barcelona city.Both the event's organisers and local hotel owners expect even more attendees at the festival this year.

From Thursday to Sunday the 19^th edition of Tortosa's Renaissance Festival attracted more than 200,000 visitors from all over Europe, who filled the city located in the Ebro Delta area in southern Catalonia. The Mayor of Tortosa, Ferran Bel, emphasised the consolidation of the festival  and the high participation numbers with many international visitors, including foreign tourists and participating companies, such as theatre groups, music bands and food traders. Bel revealed that development work  would soon take place in the old town of Tortosa and further changes would be introduced to improve next year's festival.The Mayor said that the festival had attracted considerable attention not only in southern Europe, but across the entire continent.

Blanes' annual International Fireworks Competition (Costa Brava), which this year celebrates its 44^th edition, started on Thursday night, attracting more than 100,000 people to watch the show, according to initial estimates by the Mayor of the Catalan coastal town,Josep Marigó. The event was supervised by pyrotechnic and three-time festival winner, Tomás de Castelló. The competition, which will run until Sunday, involves four professional pyrotechnics: the Valencian which opens the competition, last year´s winner from Granada, one from Aragón and a last one from Slovenia. The winner will be chosen by a jury, which this year is open to the public and formed of volunteers.

Catalonia received 1,677,679 foreign tourists in June, an increase of 2.4% compared with the same month in 2013. The combined number of foreigners who visited the Autonomous Community in the first half of this year reached 7.129 million, which is an increase of 6.7% and sets a historic new record for the number of foreign visitors passing through Catalonia. This good performance has been shared throughout Spain, as it hosted 28 million foreign tourists in the first half of 2014, marking a new record.

Barcelona´s bicycle sharing service, Bicing, has announced plans to launch an electrical bike service designed to aid longer journeys around the city. This service aims to improve the effectiveness of the current Bicing service by promoting the use of electrical bicycles, which will further enhance the image of Barcelona as a ´Smart City´. An initial trial of the new service will begin this December when 300 electronic bikes will be spread over 45 Bicingstations across the city. As with the original Bicing service, this new scheme will be directed towards regular residents of Barcelona and will be unavailable to short-stay tourists.

Barcelona Olympic Ring will become the home of the first theme park in the world entirely dedicated to sports, called Open Camp Sportainment. According to the company responsible for the project, the 66.000 m² theme park will offer a "unique" show involving technology, family and sports. The new attraction will occupy the current Olympic Stadium, the Palau Sant Jordi sports hall, the Olympic Museum, the Bernat Picornell swimming pool, the telecommunications tower designed by Santiago Calatrava and the INEFC sports faculty. All these facilities will combine their regular activities with those of the theme park, which will be open from April to October. The project expects 7,000 visitors per day and an annual economic impact for Barcelona of 53 million euros.  

On Wednesday the first door to the Façade of the Nativity of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s famous basilica designed by Antoni Gaudí, was finally installed. The bronze gate is inspired by nature and is full of metal leaves, flowers and insects. It is located in the ‘Portal of Charity,’ and is the creation of Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo, a passionate follower of Gaudí’s career who has been collaborating in the construction of the church since 1978. At 7 metres tall by 3 metres wide, the ornate door is the first of four pieces that will be installed in this part of the temple as it is completed. The concept of the Nativity Façade is to illustrate the major events of the early life of Jesus Christ through a sculptural and ornamental design full of optimism and joy. The construction of the doors of the basilica is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

The site of Empúries’ ruins will this summer include a new activity to complement your visit to the Greco-Roman site: the Emporiae Road to Rome Festival. The Road to Rome, organised by the Drakonia company from Figueres, will run from the 25 to 27 July 2014. The fast-paced and dynamic show will feature over 30 artists, ranging from riders, charioteers, dancers and legionaries, and 14 horses. Highlights of the festival will include a chariot race, something that has not been held in Spain for over 40 years. A circular stand has been installed right next to the Forum, with capacity for 2,500 people. Tickets to the festival, which will be held in the afternoons, will include a visit around the ruins of the site.

A newly published book, 'Catalunya de Pel·lícula' offers 25 trails, covering 300 sites across 145 Catalan towns that have together featured in over 175 films. The work aims to be a reference guide for all those tourists interested in the world of cinema, who want to learn famous Catalan destinations through thematic routes linked to films. The book, written by author Eugeni Osácar and published by the Department of the Catalan Tourism Agency, was presented on Thursday at the Palau Robert by Catalan Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Felip Puig.

The Igualada-Odena airfield, located in Central Catalonia is home since 1992 to an aeronautical fair called Aerosport. This fair is unique in Spain. While some towns organise more events related to airplanes, this is the only one dedicated to the leisure airplane market. This year Aerosport received more than 6,000 visitors, 200 aircrafts and 35 exhibitors over last weekend. Its objectives are to put customers and companies in contact, to help people discover leisure air activities and to put the Igualada-Odena airfield on the map. Besides the exhibitors stands, aerobatics shows and conferences were also held.

FC Barcelona has opened a new quality gastronomic space with exclusive views of the Barça's Stadium, as part of the Camp Nou Experience tour. From this week and until mid-August, the first tier of the stadium is converted a space where visitors can enjoy quality cuisine with a privileged panoramic view of the ground. This is just one of the many new attractions that FC Barcelona has prepared so that people visiting the club this summer can enjoy the most complete leisure and catering experience possible. In this space, apart from a wide range of Damm beers, including the beer created in collaboration with Catalan chef Ferran Adrià and the team from El Bulli called Inedit, visitors can enjoy hot and cold tapas, desserts and ice creams.

3.93 million international tourists visited Catalonia in the first quarter of 2014, which represents a 10.4% increase compared to the same period of 2013. On top of this, 2012 and 2013 were already excellent years for international tourism in Catalonia, posting significant annual increases. In the first quarter of 2014, the growing trend seems to be continuing and 10% more foreigners visiting Spain traveled to the land that has Barcelona as its capital. With 3,929,163 foreigners, Catalonia is the Autonomous Community in Spain receiving the second highest number of tourists during these three winter months, only surpassed by the Canaries, which welcomed 4,077,759 international visitors.

Spring is back in Girona as until this weekend the Catalan city is filled with thousands of flowers to celebrate Temps de Flors (Flowers Time), the most important Catalan flower festival and an essential social and cultural event for the city. In its 59^th edition, which will run until the 18^th May, Temps de Flors offers a total of 185 different free exhibitions, including beautiful historic patios as well as some new sights, like the Cathedral basement or the Casa Pastors. Most of the spots are in the open air, so tourists can appreciate them while strolling through the heart of Girona. This year’s edition includes an emotional tribute to Maria Cobarsí, the promoter of the festival who died in 2013.