The castellers of Vilafranca (Penedès, Catalonia) for Sant Miquel holiday in Vilafranca.
Castellers (meaning "castle builders") are groups of people who do the Catalan tradition of buildings castells ("castles" or human towers). There are many different structures for the castell, with different difficulties. Towns, city neighbourhoods, universities, and others have their own group, which everyone interested can join. They are seen as an icon of Catalan culture, representing the values of teamwork, inclusion, effort, and the resistance of Catalan culture.
They rehearse and then perform in the streets on the day of festa major (Catalan traditional holiday that each town holds on the day of their patron saint) or diades castelleres when groups from other towns also come to build their castells. Each group wears their shirt with a different colour, and fans can recognize all of them, like football fans do. They climb to the sound of a band of gralles (wind instrument very typical of traditional Catalan festive music, very loud to be played on the streets) which play the characteristic castells song, which the castellers use to coordinate the speed.
Photos by David Baell posted by Castellers de Vilafranca.
