From July 10 to 13 we experienced something we had been waiting for a long time: a new epic edition of Festival Cruïlla! We had all the things we love, from concerts to stand-up comedy, including live arts and unique gastronomic offerings. But, beyond the obvious and expected, a lot of things happened at the Festival Cruïlla 2024 that, even if you came, you may have missed.
We already knew there would be concerts, about fifty in fact, but some of the things that went on caught us totally off guard! From the onstage collaborations between artists on the line-up, like Maria Becerra and Trueno, Oques Grasses and Al·lèrgiques al Pol·len or Marala and Zetak, to surprise guests like Pol Bordas at the Figa Flawas concert, Mushkaa at the 31 FAM concert or Tacho at the Ladilla Rusa concert.
We could also enjoy some surprise covers, such as Malmö 040, who performed “Boig Per Tu”, Yadam, who sang “Fiebre” by Bad Gyal, or Avril Lavigne, who covered “All the small things” by Blink-182.
In addition, the concerts of the festival were also the setting for moments that will go down in Cruïlla’s history, such as the appearance of the Conservatori del Liceu choir at Maestro Espada’s concert and the choir and the Peña Parda percussion group in Marala’s, the marriage proposal in the front row of Avril Lavigne’s concert, the incursion of Depedro and Ginestà into the audience or the time when Tom Meighan, frontman of Kasabian, walked up to the bar to ask for a beer.
Although our next edition will be one where birthdays will take the spotlight, as we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary, this year we were able to celebrate Oscar de Leon’s 81st birthday on stage. In addition, on Saturday, July 13, we gathered more than 200 people who celebrated their birthdays during the festival so they could blow out candles and enjoy HelMa Cakes’ birthday cakes!
And speaking of cakes… did you know that in the new Sweet Space you could taste the best cheesecake in Catalonia? Pastisseria Larrosa, which participated in the festival, received the award this year. In addition, in this same space you could taste the Cruïlla doughnut by Cuvo and, thanks to Can Pizza, you were also able to find love on their dating show Pizza is in the air!
The Comèdia once again delivered some great moments at Festival Cruïlla 2024, from Venga Monjas’ concert performance to Marc Sarrats’ triumphant entrance on stage wearing a helmet with a subjective camera, which led him to ask the audience to moon the camera (although only one person dared to do it: congratulations from here, brave one!) The private parts we did get to see were those of Ignatius Farray, who, to absolutely no one’s surprise, pulled down his underwear during his performance.
Although the robot ARI is already a classic of the festival, this year we had two of them! The gray ARI twin was in the Endesa Sustainability Space and allowed all attendees to know what their environmental footprint had been by attending the festival, among many other things.
There was no possible way you could have missed Loophole, the light installation by Calidos we had for the first time at the festival and also in Barcelona. This has been one of the greatest new features of this year, but also the Silent Disco it hosted and that agglutinated hours and hours of music which made you constantly able to see people with headphones all over the venue dancing to its music.
And we don’t really know if you saw it or not, but we are sure that, if you did, it blew your mind: a pink human rabbit, embodied by the performer Nathalie Rey, who invited everyone to reflect on consumerism from inside and outside her pen, as well as various friendly sculptures made out of the waste generated at the festival which were created by Art is Trash, both by Poblenou Urban District.
Finalment, una de les coses més dolces i que ens fan sentir més orgulloses de totes les que vam viure al Festival Cruïlla 2024 és que es van aconseguir 116 donants de moll d’os durant els dos dies de l’Espai Transforma’t a l’stand del Banc de Sang i Teixits i Bombers solidaris per la campanya Junts Salvem Vides. Aquesta xifra suposa tot un rècord, ja que normalment s’aconsegueixen entre 3 i 7 donants diaris a les jornades de captació. Per això, no hi ha millor manera d’acabar aquest recull que celebrant la generositat de tots i totes vosaltres!
Finally, one of the sweetest things that make us feel most proud of all that we experienced at Festival Cruïlla is that during the two days of the Espai Transforma’t at the stand of the Blood and Tissue Bank, the Clínic nurses and Solidarity Firefighters for the Junts Salvem Vides (together we save lives) campaign, we were able to reach 116 marrow donors. This is a record number, as normally between 3 and 7 donors are achieved daily in the collection days. So, there is no better way to end this compilation than celebrating everyone’s generosity!
Thank you for being part of the Festival Cruïlla 2024! See you next year to celebrate 15 years!