Graham Keeley
BARCELONA has unveiled plans for its Christmas illuminations in May, leaving its keen rival in the festive race way behind.
Ada Colau, the left-wing mayor of the Catalan capital, revealed the winner of a contest to design this year’s Christmas lights at a presentation on Tuesday, way ahead of the city of Vigo, which last year announced similar plans in the middle of summer.
In August last year, as most of the country was heading to the beach, the mayor of Vigo, a city in Galicia, northwestern Spain, surprised the world by unveiling his plans for Christmas lights.
“Today we start setting up Vigo’s Christmas lights, which means we’re setting up lights for the best Christmas in the world,” Abel Caballero, the mayor of Vigo, told journalists at the time.
“We are going to have 10 million LED lights.”
Colau revealed that a design proposed by the Estudio Antoni Arola had won the tender for the contract with a design which would be more minimalist than other cities.
Instead of using as many bulbs as possible, the design concept focused on using bulbs to create the best reaction from Christmas revellers.
Jaume Collboni, the Barcelona deputy mayor, said: “By Christmas 2021 we will see the economic recuperation and normality after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Christmas lights will be an icon which will be spectacular and will be called Marca Barcelona.”
The city council is to spend €2.4 million on the illuminations.
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