Locals get crafty ahead of Barcelona's Festes de Gràcia

Residents of Barcelona's Gràcia neighborhood are once again getting ready for the annual "Festa Major" festivities, with the so-called "party committees" and local organizations working on finishing the handmade decorations that will soon adorn the streets. 

Taking place from August 15 to 21, Festes de Gràcia is one of the most important summer celebrations in Barcelona in which 23 streets are decked with elaborate and colorful decorations created by residents throughout the year. 

Older or more renowned streets, like Carrer Verdi, have a lot of volunteers and not enough work for everybody. Smaller streets like Carrer Lluís Vives, on the other hand, have trouble finding people to make decorations as the younger generations tend to be less inclined to take part in the tradition. 

Lina López, who lives on Carrer Lluís Vives, says that there is still a lot of work to do before the 15th."We hope that when it is time to put everything up, more people will come and help us," she told the Catalan News Agency (ACN). 

But these festivities face other problems too, like overcrowding, an issue that the Festes de Gràcia have been faced with for years. 

And while volunteers have been working on decorations, days before the celebrations and parties are set to begin, some residents have already complained about the noise. 

However, volunteers see a bigger purpose to their work: "We are not making noise, we are trying to maintain a 200-year-old tradition," Susana Font, volunteering on the decorations on Carrer Vedi del Mig says. 

"I feel bad for our neighbors who may be bothered by the noise, but this is a beautiful tradition from our neighborhood, a sign of our identity that we want to preserve," Roger Olmos, from Perles de Gràcia association, said.

Aside from the street decorating contest, other planned activities include free concerts and traditional Catalan human towers known as castells.