Pocallum — Nou-Barris

Festival de Blues de Barcelona

Wed, 09 Jan 2030 00:00:00 +0000

The Blues de Barcelona is a different species. The loyalty of its audience, the calibre of musicians who pass through, the care taken with every edition — nothing here is superficial or accidental.

Photographing blues is photographing scars. Every musician carries a story you can see in their hands, their posture, the way they lean into the microphone as if they have something important to tell it.

Not everyone understands the blues at first glance. But everyone understands a photograph that genuinely captures it.

Jornades Xarxa 9 Barris Acull

Sun, 06 Jan 2030 00:00:00 +0000

For almost two decades, 9 Barris Acull was the district’s welcome centre: legal advice on immigration, language workshops, a neighbourhood solidarity network — and every year, a series of talks that put on the table the questions the rest of the city preferred not to face.

Each edition had its theme. In 2017, different perspectives on Islam and racism. In 2018, discriminatory discourse and its alternatives. In 2019, the new demographic landscape and the challenges of coexistence. In 2022, young people, racism and exclusion. These were not consensus events — they were sessions of intellectual confrontation, with people who lived these issues first-hand.

Festival de Sopes del Món

Tue, 01 Jan 2030 00:00:00 +0000

Every autumn, Nou Barris fills with pots. The Festival de Sopes del Món — Festival of World Soups — proves that a simple bowl of soup can bring people together in ways no politics can manage. Organised by 9 Barris Acull and the Xarxa d’Intercanvi de Coneixements, it has now reached its nineteenth edition.

The festival brings together communities from across the neighbourhood — and the world — around a bowl of soup. Each participant brings their recipe, their story and their table. The result is a gathering that is as much political as gastronomic, in the best sense of both words.

Carnestoltes in Nou Barris

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nou Barris celebrates Carnestoltes in the street — and it does it properly. The Gran Rua Central winds through the district with comparses, costumes and batucadas. Those who want to keep going head to Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris, where the Gran Ball de Carnestoltes runs until the night runs out.

We have been documenting Nou Barris Carnestoltes since 2016. Two distinct moments: the daytime parade, with February light and families in the street, and the Ateneu party, where the energy is something else entirely. Artificial light, movement, costumes that looked one way in the sun and look completely different on the dance floor.

Flamenco de Barrio

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Flamenco de Barrio takes flamenco to the street. Literally. Squares, courtyards, everyday spaces in Nou Barris where something that shouldn’t fit suddenly fits perfectly.

Some festivals bring the audience to the artists. Flamenco de Barrio does the opposite: it brings the artists to the people who are already there.

Photographing in natural afternoon light, in spaces not designed for performance, with the audience so close they become part of the image — this is a different school. Here we’ve learnt that the best photograph isn’t always the perfect one.

Sopar d'Entitats del Casal de Barri Prosperitat

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every autumn, the organisations and collectives of the neighbourhood gather at Casal de Barri Prosperitat to take stock, welcome new members and reconnect with those no longer as active. The Sopar d’Entitats (Organisations’ Dinner) is an annual tradition mixing debate, food, music and comedy — almost a festival, even if it doesn’t go by that name.

We play at home here. La Prosperitat is our neighbourhood, the Casal is our space, and the organisations that come — we know them. There is a warmth and a horizontality to this dinner that no conventional festival can replicate: nobody is the audience, everyone is a participant.

Circus Show — International Exchange

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Circus School of the Ateneu Popular de 9 Barris has spent years training young people from the district in circus disciplines. The Mostra de Circ is the moment when everything they have learned comes out into the street — literally. An open space, in the middle of the square, with the neighbourhood as audience and the students as protagonists.

Circus is very present in Nou Barris. And it is no coincidence: it is a tool for social transformation that the district has understood and supported for decades. The Ateneu Popular de 9 Barris is its centre of gravity — but circus appears in the neighbourhood centres, the squares, youth festivals, international exchanges.

Pícnic de Blues

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every May, Capibola Blues brings blues music to Parc Central de Nou Barris as part of the district’s neighbourhood festivities. A blanket on the grass, a cool box, live music and spring sunshine — or rain, which has also happened. Since 2013, we have been there.

The Pícnic de Blues is a free, neighbourhood event with no pretensions, which for some reason always works. Perhaps because blues in a park, with people lying on the grass and kids running through the crowd, is exactly the right setting for this music.

Nou Barris meets New Orleans

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every spring, the Ateneu Popular 9 Barris builds an imaginary bridge between Nou Barris and New Orleans. Not a tourist postcard — a recognition that both cities share something fundamental: music as a tool for social cohesion in neighbourhoods that need it.

The formula is simple and effective: a second line through the district streets, a brass band that brings people out onto their balconies, DJ sets with a soundsystem, Creole food, and a closing concert. All in one day, for everyone.

Ventanas Abiertas — Finestres Curioses

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ventanas Abiertas / Finestres Curioses is a community artistic creation process: a performance built from the contributions of the people who live in the neighbourhood, not from a script written by someone from outside. The result is a show that carries the imprint of Nou Barris in every movement.

It is facilitated by Elia Pérez and Marta Rodríguez at the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris. The process matters as much as the premiere: weeks of collective work in which participants — residents of all ages — build a performance from scratch. Circus disciplines appear as an expressive language, not as technical virtuosity.

End of Ramadan Celebrations in Nou Barris

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Every year, when the month of fasting ends, the Islamic community of Nou Barris takes to the streets. The Eid al-Fitr celebration is not an event for tourists or the press — it’s a neighbourhood party, intimate and massive at once, filling squares and streets with families, food, music and prayer.

The residents of Nou Barris come from many different origins. One of the communities that makes up the district is the Islamic community, and in 2023 we had the privilege of documenting their Ramadan and its celebrations — from the Iftar breaking of the fast to the great Eid al-Fitr festivity.

Erràtik

Fri, 27 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Erràtik is the festival that changes neighbourhood every year. The name fits perfectly: erratic by principle, itinerant by philosophy. Vallbona, Canyelles, Trinitat Nova, Verdum, Roquetes — each edition brings the artistic expressions of local young people to where they actually live, not somewhere they’re expected to go to see culture.

It grew out of the Social Circus Festival, expanding the scope to include urban dance, theatre, percussion, music, freestyle, robotics and street arts. Everything made with and by the neighbourhood’s young people, not for them.

Monocyclists' Gathering

Sat, 08 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A gathering of monocyclists is exactly what it sounds like: people who ride unicycles, who meet, who perform, and who share a space that is not usually theirs. An event that has been running for decades across Barcelona’s neighbourhoods — we were already documenting it at the 18th edition in 2011.

The unicycle is one of those circus disciplines practised from a very young age that creates very specific communities. People who have spent years with a single wheel beneath them — neighbourhood regulars, weekend acrobats, artists who make their living from balance.

El Arbusto — Scale Model Competition

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

El Arbusto is the scale model competition held at Casal de Barri Prosperitat. Every autumn the neighbourhood fills with handmade pieces, meticulous detail and people who have spent months working on something no one else will see until this day. An intense weekend with a very special atmosphere.

Casal de Barri Prosperitat is a place where we have spent many hours, and El Arbusto is one of its fixed dates. From 2011 — when it was already in its seventh edition — through to 2016, we went along with the camera documenting participants, pieces and atmosphere.

Pigme@s Revoltos@s Festival

Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The Pigme@s Revoltos@s festival was born as a tool. Not entertainment, but fundraising for a neighbourhood platform fighting against waste incineration in Montcada i Reixac. Music in the service of a cause that affects the land and the health of the people who live there.

It was organised by the Pigme@s collective, in collaboration with the Ateneu Popular 9 Barris and the Casal de Barri Prosperitat. The format included an exhibition, a talk with environmental and health experts, and a concert featuring acts from Barcelona’s alternative music scene.

9b in Black

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

9b in Black was Nou Barris’ black music festival. Three editions that brought blues, soul, funk, hip-hop and breakdance together in one space — a celebration of a musical culture with no single origin and no single colour.

The first edition, in February 2011, coincided with the centenary of Robert Johnson’s birth — one of the most legendary blues guitarists in history. It was no minor coincidence: 9b in Black wanted black music to feel not like a foreign genre but like a shared root.