Madrid, Europe Brief News – Spain’s biggest human tower competition kicked off on Sunday, with some 11,000 spectators.
After a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, the biannual human-tower competition was back in full swing over the weekend.
“Castellers” work together to build human towers (“castells”) in groups, competing to form the highest and most complex towers they can.
The Catalan tradition has originated among local dance groups at the end of the 18th century.
The winning team this year formed a tower 10 tiers high above the surrounding crowd.
The human towers are called “castells,” and building them is a centuries-old practice in Catalonia, an autonomous community within Spain with its own language.
An “integral part” of the Catalan people’s “cultural identity,” the tradition has originated from human towers built at the end of the 18th century by dance groups.
In the city of Tarragona, 11,000 spectators filled a stadium to watch 41 teams of “castellers” compete. The event took place every two years. But this was the first time it has been held since 2018, because of the pandemic.
Besides being the first battle since before the pandemic started in 2020 in Spain, this year’s celebration had the added incentive of being the event’s 75th anniversary and 20 years since the festival was declared by Spain as an international tourism attraction.
