Thousands fill Tarragona arena to enjoy Catalonia's biggest human tower competition

The Castellers de Vilafranca won the 30th edition of Catalonia's biggest human tower competition on Sunday, ending a nail-biting day with the first ever completed nine-person-wide, nine-storey-high human tower.

The Concurs de Castells, which is held in the Tarraco Arena in Tarragona every two years, is a unique 'castells' (human towers) meeting and the only 'castells' day that has an explicitly competitive format. Tickets sold out for the full weekend’s program. 

The competition pits the best teams of 'castells' against each other, with 42 'colles,' or groups, competing to build the tallest and most intricate structures. 

This year, the Castellers de Vilafranca won again, marking their 13th win in the last 15 editions. They did so while achieving the first-ever successful completion of a '9 de 9 amb folre,' or nine-person-wide, nine-storey-high human tower. The group finished with a score of 14,635 points. 

"We are the best 'colla' in the world, never doubt it," said Àngel Grau, the leader of the Castellers de Vilafranca, who made the comment after hearing his group had been proclaimed champions.

Despite the historic victory, it was a nail-biter for first place as Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls, also put on a strong performance, finishing with a score of 13,365. Jove de Tarragona rounded out the podium for third place.

What was billed as the greatest human tower competition in history lived up to the hype. It featured towers never before completed successfully, teams pushing new boundaries and excitement lasting past 10pm, a delay caused by the storm that affected parts of Catalonia over the weekend. The finish was incredibly close.

Vilafranca grabbed an early lead with a ten-storey tower in the first round, closing the second with another. The Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls, known as the "Rosats," answered in the third round with the highest-scoring tower ever attempted in the Tarragona arena. 

The climbers reached the top, but the tower buckled as the tower began dismantling. Even so, the points put the Rosats in front. 

Vilafranca countered with a one-person-wide, nine-storey tower and came up a heartbeat short. The top climber had one foot on a teammate's shoulder and was lifting a knee for the other when the levels below collapsed.

"Despite a very strong start in the first two rounds and having great confidence in the pillar, we came incredibly close to mounting it, it is a very difficult structure," Grau said.

The Rosats went for another ten-storey tower in the fourth round, but it fell apart and they scored nothing, though they still led. That was when Vilafrance pulled out its nine-person-wide, nine-storey-high human tower to regain the lead.

Leader of the Rosats, Manel Urbano, weighed one more attempt in the fifth round but decided against risking another fall, handing Vilafranca the victory.

"We’re leaving happy and content," Grau said. He spoke very positively about the group's performance and celebrated the successful completion of the '9 de 9 amb folre.'

"Being able to complete it is spectacular," he said. "The pilar de 9 amb folre is a very difficult tower, just like the one the Rosats attempted; these towers are attempted very few times in a lifetime, and today, it just wasn't meant to be."

"Hats off to them," he added.

Vilafranca has dominated the Concurs since the mid-1990s, with the win marking the group's 14th all-time win, the most of any other group. The competition first took place in 1932 and became a regular event in the 1980s. 

To learn more about castells, check out this podcast from 2022.