Cocktail festival, Sant Jordi prep, avant-garde projection mappings: what's on this weekend

From concerts to cultural festivals, events and nightlife, there are countless things to do in Barcelona and around Catalonia this weekend. 

Here's a selection of some of the best plans and what's on this weekend.

Buy your Sant Jordi book | Ahead of April 23 | Cultural day | Everywhere

April 23 is one of the most special days of the year in Catalonia. Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalonia, and Catalan celebrate by gifting books and roses to the special people in their lives. Every year, April 23 is one of the most magical days to take to the streets of whatever town or city you're in and enjoy the festive atmosphere. Hundreds of bookstalls will fill the streets of Barcelona, but perhaps you'll want to get ahead of the game and make your Sant Jordi purchase in advance this weekend. 

Barcelona Cocktail Fest | April 18-19 | Drinks fair | Palo Alto, Barcelona

The festival will feature pop-up bars from ten of the world’s best cocktail bars, street food, all-day DJ programming, a sustainable market, speakers, masterclasses, and activities promoting sustainability in the sector, both locally and internationally. With this new concept, the event is designed to engage not only the international bar community but also local residents and visitors, combining world-class mixology with an inclusive, festival-style experience.

OFFF Festival & projection mappings | April 16-18 | Digital art | DHub

Barcelona’s Design Museum, DHub, is hosting a new edition of OFFF Festival, turning the Catalan capital into the epicenter of avant-garde creativity. The 26th edition of the world’s most important industry event for the digital design and creativity sectors, OFFF Barcelona will bring together the most innovative and outstanding international and local talent. After the success of opening up some free activities for the public last year, OFFF brings The Screen back once again, a ‘mapping’ experience that will project visual art spectacles onto the façade of the DHub from 9-11pm each night of the festival.

AMEBA Festival | April 18-19 | Live music | Poble Espanyol

AMEBA stands for the Association of Electronic Music of Barcelona, and the second edition of its festival returns this weekend even stronger, with a new location and the same essence: a local, underground scene and community. A two-day festival with limited capacity (1,000 people), designed for those seeking music with soul, daring, and personality. The lineup blends experimental electronica, ambient, downtempo, leftfield, and IDM, accompanied by audiovisual performances.

Science festival | April 18-19 | Family-friendly | El Born, Barcelona

The Science Festival, one of the city's most important science culture events, returns to the heart of Barcelona this weekend. Organized by the Barcelona City Council, it will once again be located around El Born, the Barcelona History Museum, Plaça Comercial, and Ciutadella Park. As in recent years, its scope also extends to the Hivernacle and the Martorell Exhibition Centre, two of the city's exhibition spaces (part of the Natural Science Museum), reflecting the overall Ciutadella del Conocimiento project, which aims to become a new hub for research, innovation, and outreach, as outlined in the 2024-2027 Strategic Plan for Science and Innovation.

Lactium | April 18-19 | Artisanal cheese fair | Vic 

Artisanal cheese producers from around Catalonia descend on the central city of Vic for a powerful program of activities around milk and artisanal cheese.

Penedès Modernist Fair | April 18-19 | Traditional culture | L'Arboç

L’Arboç is popularly known as the town of beautiful houses. In the old nucleus of the town, the visitor can find a large number of buildings of great aesthetic beauty and where the architectural style of modernism is predominant, witness to the splendid time of progress that the municipality lived at the end of the 19th century. L’Arboç has valued all its modernist heritage by creating the Penedès Modernist Fair, which is normally held on the last weekend of April, and where l’Arboç and its inhabitants pay tribute to the modernism that adorns its buildings. During the thematic fair, the town breathes modernism and its inhabitants dress in the style of the time and guided tours are organized in emblematic buildings closed to the public the rest of the year. Street theater, entertainment, guided tours of the rich modernist heritage of L’Arboç and much more at the most important Modernist Fair in the Penedès.

Setmenat Snail Fair | April 18-19 | Food fair | Setmenat

The Sentmenat Snail Fair is a meeting point for local gastronomy and commerce. Stalls, tasting area, local products, crafts and activities for all audiences fill the town during a unique weekend. Come enjoy the best snail dishes and discover the talent and commercial fabric of Sentmenat.

Festa Major de la Sagrada Família | April 17-26 | Popular traditions | Sagrada Família area, Barcelona

From April 17 to 26, the Sagrada Família Festival fills the streets of the city's emblematic neighborhood with popular culture, joy and a festive atmosphere. Over the course of ten days, you can enjoy family and sports activities, street fairs and markets, workshops, talks and popular meals, as well as concerts, classical music and dance exhibitions. Once again, popular culture plays a prominent role with the correfoc, the giants, the matinades, the sardana dance and the castellera day.

Dara Ó Briain | April 20 | Live comedy | Teatre Borràs

After the huge international success of his last tour, 'So, Where Were We?' which sold out 173 venues across 20 countries and was named UK Comedy Tour of the Year 2023 (Chortle), Dara's new show 'Re:Creation' sees one of Ireland's finest live comedians back doing his favourite thing: standing in a theatre, telling stories and creating madness with the audience. It's guaranteed to be a very, very, funny night. 

Barcelona Film Fest | April 16-24 | Cinema | Various venues

The Barcelona Sant Jordi International Film Festival offers a selection of international films, which are widely related to literature and/or history. In line with this criteria, preferred films for the Official Section are adaptations of literary works, productions based on or related to historical events and film biopics about well-known figures. Among the big names in cinema visiting the Catalan capital for the festival are Willem Dafoe, Ralph Fiennes, and Lucy Liu.

ATP Barcelona Open | April 11-19 | Tennis | Real Club de Tennis Barcelona-1899

The Barcelona Open Conde de Godó Trophy will be held from April 11 to 19 on the courts of the Real Club de Tennis Barcelona-1899 and will feature the world's best player, Carlos Alcaraz. The Murcian will headline a high-level edition that will also feature Lorenzo Musetti (5th ATP), Alex de Miñaur (6th ATP), and Felix Auger Aliassime (8th ATP). The 2024 champion, Casper Ruud, will also participate. The first invitation for this year will be for Rafa Jódar, 19 years old and currently number 109 ATP, one of the most promising Spanish tennis players.

Han Kang - Radical Empathy | April 21 | Debate | CCCB

The writer Han Kang, 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, visits the CCCB to talk about her work, which deals with collective memory and the vulnerability of the human body, on the occasion of the publication of Tinta y sangre [Ink and Blood] (Random House, 2026). Since she became known internationally with The Vegetarian (Portobello Books, 2015) and through her most recent works such as We Do Not Part (Hogarth, 2025), Han Kang has built up a unique body of work, with an incisive beauty, that touches on some of the major themes of our time: political violence and collective memory, but also grief, silence, and friendship.

Chez Matisse | March 27-August 16 | Exhibition | CaixaForum, Barcelona

An exploration of Henri Matisse's trajectory, evolution, scope, and influence on international artists and avant-garde movements. The exhibition highlights part of the immense dialogue surrounding his name in 20th- and 21st-century art, from his first self-portrait to the artistic freedom of his later paintings and gouaches.

Experience 'The Last Days of Pompeii' | From March 20 | Exhibition | IDEAL Montjuïc

Towering flames of lava taking over the skies, ash and soot flooding homes and buildings; utter devastation and total destruction inevitable. ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’ is the newest exhibition from IDEAL Digital Arts Centre, taking visitors back to 79 AD and one of the most compelling episodes of ancient history. The experience seeks to bring visitors closer to the lives and culture of the people who lived in the shadow of Vesuvius. 

New Phenomena Experience cinema | Open from April 2 | Phenomena Cinemas

Barcelona's famed Phenomena Cinema is entering a new phase, offering audiences a more "sensory" cinematic experience, aiming to let viewers perceive films with the technical precision intended by their creators. Phenomena Experience first opened in December 2014. Last September, the theater closed for renovations and was simultaneously announced as the recipient of the Carlo Lizzani 2025 European Best Theater Award at the Venice Film Festival.

'Recovered from the Enemy' | February 20-June 28 | Exhibition | MNAC

During the turbulent Civil War and early dictatorship years, Catalonia's National Art Museum of Catalonia was one of many sites used as a depository for artworks that the Franco regime tagged with a label, 'Recovered from the enemy'. A new exhibition, open until June 28, explores the dual role of the museum during these years, first as a site for the Catalan government to collect precious artworks and heritage documents. The backs of many of the 146 pieces are on display, showing the various labels on frames, including some that read 'Recovered from the Enemy,’ symbolizing the forceful implementation of a new political order.

Live music

Rosalía | April 13, 15, 17, 18 | Palau Sant Jordi

Queralt Lahoz | April 18 | Razzmatazz

Jan Blomqvist | April 23 | Sala Apolo 

Juana Molina | April 26 | Sala Upload

Yves | May 1 | Sala Apolo

Mad Professor | May 4 | Sala Apolo

Kiefer Sutherland | May 5 | Sala Apolo

Edwyn Collins | May 5 | La Nau

Marcos Valle | May 12 | Sala Apolo

Clara Aguilar | May 13 | Sala Upload

Ben Howard | May 28 | Sala Apolo

Joan Miró: Cirlces | March 13, 2026 - March 12, 2028 | Art | Joan Miró Foundation

A new exhibition reorganizes the Miró collection and invites visitors to reinterpret the artist's work through Joan Miró's creative process rather than a traditional chronological or thematic narrative. The show presents 102 works from across the artist's career and will run for two years, with some pieces rotating every six months.

We Are Seventeen | March 6-May 17 | Exhibition | CCCB

What does it mean today to be seventeen? In this exhibition, over 300 young people explore who they are, what they feel and how they see the world, by means of photography, cinema and the word. “We are seventeen. A collective portrait” takes a look at the places, experiences and concerns of seventeen-year-olds who have produced portraits of themselves and photographed their immediate surroundings. The show includes photographs, films and texts in the first person, genuine perspectives that shake off adult prejudices and the codes habitually used to represent adolescence.

'The Perpetual Movement of the Wall' | February 13-September 6 | Art | Tàpies Museum

The Tàpies Museum has opened a new exhibition, 'The Perpetual Movement of the Wall', exploring what Antoni Tàpies' exhibitions were like in the 1950s. Not only are the artworks recreated, but also how they were displayed and how critics and the public responded.

New works by Banksy | Until December 2026 | Exhibition | Moco Museum

The Moco Museum Barcelona recently unveiled a new exhibition featuring the British pseudonymous artist Banksy. 'New works by Banksy,' showcases 25 artworks, most of them new additions to the museum’s existing collection of the artist’s pieces. It is the largest exhibition of Banksy’s work ever held in Spain and includes two previously unseen pieces in a museum setting. All the pieces share a common theme: power and its disruption, a recurring motif in the artist's oeuvre.

Rodoreda, a Forest | Until May 25 | Exhibition | CCCB

This exhibition explores the imaginative universe of Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda through artworks, manuscripts and immersive installations. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm, tickets are priced at €6 (€4 reduced), with free entry on Sundays from 3pm to 8pm.

Visit 50,000-year-old Siberian mammoth | Every day | Museum | CosmoCaixa, Barcelona 

Barcelona's CosmoCaixa Science Museum unveiled the latest addition to its exhibition: a large six-meter-long and 3.5-meter-tall Siberian mammoth. The mammoth is between 40,000 and 50,000 years old and will now be part of the permanent exposition. 

‘Extraterrestrials. Is there life beyond Earth?’ | Until August 30 | Science exhibition | CosmoCaixa science museum

'Extraterrestrials - Is There Life Outside Earth?' delves into topics such as our place in the cosmos, the meaning of the concept of life, and how literature and cinema have shaped the collective imagination about what form alien life could take. Visitors begin by discovering Earth's place in the cosmos. The exhibition then explores, from a historical perspective, the great philosophical debate between those who argue that life is unique to our planet, and those who believe in the existence of other inhabited worlds.