BARCELONA
Master ‘the roll’ on Mondays in the party capital of the world.
Words and photography Roberto Serrini
MANY cities lay claim to a certain type of nightlife. Moscow rules when it comes to hard-hitting mega dance clubs, Tokyo takes drinking and singing to a near religious experience, while New York and Berlin are simply New York and Berlin.
any cities lay claim to a certain type of nightlife. Moscow rules when it comes to hard-hitting mega dance clubs, Tokyo takes drinking and singing to a near religious experience, while New York and Berlin are simply New York and Berlin.
Click below to see the bar(celona) scene in action
Barcelona is a trickier city to place; mainly for the fact that the term ‘nightlife’ isn’t quite accurate here; it seems almost impossible to contain the party solely to when the sun does not shine.
Barcelona requires a cell phone with plenty of memory space in order for you to recall even a fraction of the fun. The "Gran Fiesta" starts its party cycle in the early afternoon. If you’re doing it right, this is moments after you've woken up from the night before.
There are lots of low-key bars to begin, like Bar Mut, where you can gobble up some tasty tapas like Pac-Man slowly gaining energy for the night ahead. Alternatively you might opt for Bar Canete, which offers the chance to get lost in the most tender polpo (octopus) you've ever had while waiters literally pour wine down your gullet from ancient porrónes, a sort of pitcher that has its roots in Catalonia.
Tourists flock to Barcelona, with around 32 million visitors per year.
Savory bar tapas and cold Estrella gets the night off to the perfect start.
To master the party that is Barca, you must first master the ‘roll’, which is the skill to know when to change environs, not unlike a master DJ slowly bringing a heaving dance floor to a roaring boil right before dropping the bass.
The best place to practice this is in the El Born neighbourhood, where you'll find one delightfully cramped bar after another bouncing to good music. Don’t miss Bar Sauvage; when you first enter this place may seem limited to a Japanese style shipping container, until you try to find the bathroom, and discover that you are completely lost in a maze of cavernous pockets each housing what seems to be the coolest dance club you've ever been to.
One of the many 'barcitos' that populate Barcelona; perfect for a midday vermut.
It's easy to get sidetracked in a Barca laneway
The hardest part is leaving, or at least finding your way out, but you must because ‘the roll’ must not be ignored. At this point you may opt for another bar, or a stroll in La Rambla del Poblenou where the bar is the street itself.
Here under the stars in the somehow always ambient night air you'll drift in and out of live music and open-air parties that flare up on the street spontaneously. Grab yourself a cold Estrella beer and drift from party to party, fall in love several times, and try not to get trapped by the siren's song because there is one last place ‘the roll’ needs you to see before you can say you’ve conquered Barcelona’s nightlife.
Fridays and Saturdays are great everywhere. Some cities, like New York or Paris, can offer you a pretty good time any night of the week. You may have to ask around, but chances are, you'll find something to do.
Bar Marsella is one of the oldest in bars in the city, and one where you can find an authentic absinthe pour.
Barcelona laughs at these cities, because the biggest party on earth happens here on a Monday night. It raises a glass and a middle finger to convention and puts absolute club chaos on the start of the work week with the appropriately named Nasty Mondays held at the ancient Apollo Theatre.
Imagine a multi-levelled megaplex dedicated to only two things: getting blotto and then’ dancing the booze out of your body. Hundreds (thousands?) elite revellers pack themselves into this pleasure palace and watch as the world’s best DJs inject souls with adrenaline-pulsing beats.
The party at the Apolo theater goes well into the morning, until you are due at work.
It's important to rehydrate.
On stage, two full bars sit front and centre as cocktail-swishing bar gods spin and shake and long-pour drinks directly in the mouths of clubgoers like mother-birds feeding their dancing young.
This party starts at 1am. and it is believed no one has ever survived to say when it actually ends. It could be 6am, it could go until noon, but it's longer than modern cell phone batteries last to record the night. In some sort of poetic gesture it makes total sense that the biggest party in the world would happen on a Monday, since in Barcelona partying isn't a pastime, more as it is like a full time job, and nothing sets up the work week like a Nasty Monday.
Nasty Mondays are anything but.
As a journalist I will continue to travel the world to collect data and finesse my research, but for the moment all scientific results illuminate Barcelona as the nightlife common ancestor that all other party experiences have sprung from.
Regardless of whether it's a mellow wine and philosophy session, a boogie in the streets or an all-out, ballistic mind-melt in a ground zero dance club, Barcelona should be handing out bottles of electrolytes when you arrive at the airport because if you do it right, you're going to need them.
get in the know Barcelona is home to the largest football stadium in Europe.
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