Barcelona has kicked off the La Mercè festivities with massive concerts until the early hours of this Saturday, during which there have been no notable incidents. The announced police measures to detect knives among the public have been more visible at the end of the concerts than before they began at places such as the beaches. There, some attendees preferred to leave knives on the ground rather than have the Mossos d’Esquadra search them with metal detectors. Otherwise, the busiest area has been Bogatell beach, with 60,000 people, which has caused some moments of overcrowding.
At around 1.30am, the Mossos deployed a filter-like device near the Olympic Village to detect knives among the attendees who had been leaving the concerts. Three ARRO vans and 15 officers formed a cordon on the seafront to carry out searches. The operation lasted an hour and the Mossos seized some kitchen knives and pocket knives that party-goers had left on the ground before passing through the police filter.
The head of the Mossos operation has reported that this operation has been repeated on the stage on Menéndez Pelayo Street (in the Zona Universitaria, Les Corts) and at the entrances between Plaça Catalunya and El Raval, where there have also been concerts with a large number of attendees. The Mossos have estimated a total of 60,000 people at the show on Bogatell beach.
The atmosphere in Plaça Catalunya was festive. Apart from a few Guàrdia Urbana officers patrolling on foot, there was no sign of the intensive controls that the local police announced during the week due to the increase in the number of knives. The Spanish-Brazilian singer-songwriter Lua de Santana made the square vibrate with soul and funk music while a wave of tourists approached the stage.
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The atmosphere was different from that of Bogatell beach, where large crowds of people have blocked all the accesses, both to the metro and to the beach where the concerts were held. There was a certain amount of stress among the spectators when they arrived at the concert by Oques Grasses and Figa Flawas, the most eagerly awaited of the early morning.
Police checkpoints were also the scene of a rare occurrence, with the Mossos d’Esquadra patrolling the sea all night. Several police boats came within a few metres of the shore to control the crowd.
David Rua comes to every Mercè from Castellar del Vallès (Barcelona) to enjoy the festivities. “We have never had any problems, I think that the issue of insecurity has been exaggerated in this edition,” he explained. Noemi Medina, from Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (Barcelona), also faithful to the festival, has assured that the crowds end up being a problem in access to the concerts. “I have never felt threatened or insecure, but it is true that they had promised much more surveillance than there really was. They patrol the outside, both on land and sea, but then there are fights between people on the beach itself and nobody comes,” she lamented.
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