10th Barcelona Modernista Fair 2014

This year 2014 we are celebrating 10 years of our Fair! Thank you and congratulations to all of you who have visited or have collaborated with us for making the Fair a bigger event year after year! The anniversary can be seen depicted in our poster, which this year will be a compilation of our posters for the previous nine years.

On this occasion, the Fair will be dedicated to the centenary of the first vehicle of Catalonia’s Elizalde brand to drive through the streets of Barcelona, on 16 April 1914, leaving the factory in Passeig de Sant Joan. Our magazine includes an interview with Antonio Capella Elizalde, president of the Elizalde Foundation and descendant of the family, telling the story of this former brand that manufactured cars and aircraft engines.

In terms of the stands of entities in Carrer Girona, this year we are visited for the first time by Cemeteries of Barcelona, bringing with it a surprise: over the three-day period of the Fair, there will be two carriages on display in the marquee in Carrer Girona, between Avinguda Diagonal and Mallorca, from the collection of hearse carriages belonging to Cemeteries of Barcelona, one of which even has horses! Although you won’t be able to feed them because they are made of plastic. This carriage is just one example of the gems on display at the Montjuïc Cemetery Museum, which has more than fifteen pieces. And from the Maresme region, we will be visited by the town councils of Argentona, Canet de Mar and Mataró, promoting their Puig i Cadafalch Route, and in the case of Canet, the work of Lluís Domènech i Montaner that can be found in the town.

All the regular stands from last year will also be there, with the novelty that this year the Barcelona Provincial Council will bring a big-head figure of Antoni Gaudí’s along to be displayed in the Fair’s large marquee.

Another new activity is the talk that will be given at the foot of the Fair, in the marquee in Carrer Girona, this year given by Josep Lluís Moya under the title “1900, the year of optimism”. We will also have our regular talk on the subject of the Fair, this year entitled “The Elizalde factory” by Antonio Capella Elizalde, naturally to be presented at the Casa Elizalde Civic Centre, the family’s former home.

Barcelona is the sardana capital in 2014 and so the Fair will also welcome groups of sardana performers dancing as they did in the times of Modernisme.

The programme will be completed with the usual activities, the 4th edition of our Bicycle Ride, and the 4th Modernista Shop Window Competition, the 2nd parade of vintage vehicles, the manned model train, which last year transported 1,500 people to the Fair, the group La Llanterna de Terrassa, and if you come dressed in period costume and have your photograph taken in our marquee on Sunday you will enjoy a free paella and enter a raffle to win some prizes.

We look forward to seeing you with lots of Modernisme on 31 May, 1 and 2 June!