The 29th edition of the Concurs de Castells will be held, as has been the case since 2014, on a three-day event format: on Sunday, the 29th of September, in Torredembarra; and, on Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th of October, at the Tarraco Arena Plaça (TAP) in Tarragona. The presentation of the Concurs de Castells, the largest castells event in the world, was presented today by the Culture Minister of the Tarragona City Council, Sandra Ramos, and the mayor of Torredembarra, Eduard Rovira, on an event that also allowed for other aspects of this next edition to be unveiled, such as the poster for the 2024 Concurs or the day tickets will go on sale.
A total of 42 'colles' or groups will take part in this 29th edition. 12 of them will perform on Sunday, the 29th of September, in Torredembarra; whilst 18 colles will do so on Saturday, the 5th of October, in the above-mentioned TAP. Finally, the 12 best colles in the country will take part in Sunday's event, also in the TAP in Tarragona.
The 'colles' that will take part in the 2024 edition of the Concurs de Castells will be unveiled on the 31st of August, based on their position in the Ranking Estrella, while the location and order of performance during the 3 days will be unveiled on a draw held on Wednesday afternoon, the 11th of September, in a public event due at the Teatre Tarragona that will be broadcast live on TAC12 and the La Xarxa+.
Tickets to attend both Saturday and Sunday events at TAP will go on sale on the 24th of July. A total of 5.000 tickets will be available for the Saturday event, while 6.000 will be available for purchase for the Sunday event. In terms of price, tickets for Saturday, the 5th of October, will cost 6€, while tickets for the Sunday event, due on the 6th of October, will cost 15€ in a first tier (with an allocated seat) and 12€ in the second tier (with no allocated seat). In all cases, prices are the same as in the 2022 edition. Tickets will also be available for the known as "Apropa Cultura" project, aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable people through culture. The Torredembarra event will have free entrance.
In relation to the event due on Sunday 29 in Torredembarra, the mayor Eduard Rovira confirmed "Torredembarra’s commitment and dedication to the Concurs de Castells" and is convinced that the vent "will be a great castells experience once again".
International 'Castells' Meeting
On Saturday, the 5th of October, in the morning this time, Plaça de la Font will once again host the International Castells Meeting, which will gather colles from outside Catalonia.
Councilor Sandra Ramos stressed "the firm commitment of the city with this milestone, the most important and unique one in the whole casteller calendar". Councilor Ramos thanked both the Torredembarra City Council and other administrations, sponsors and colles castelleres for their support. "All these efforts together make the summit possible", said Ramos.
A poster made to resemble 'castells'
The presentation event also served to unveil the new design for the 2024 Concurs de Castells, a work by visual artist Ricard Martínez Teruel, as well as its adaptation as the 29th edition poster, which was created by designer Miquel Àngel Cuesta.
Ricard Martínez has named the image "Beating Architecture", made following a technique known as rephotography, which the author has been practicing for over 20 years. The process has been hard, meticulous and very technical, just like 'castells' during their building process. In this sense, Martínez wanted to incorporate into the creation process “the way in which these flesh-and-bone structures are built”, he said.
The way he achieced this was “by combining photograph that, starting from a first photo from the 1st ever Concurs de Castells held in 1932, were stacked on top of each other, as if each image became a part of the resulting castell, which create endless historical scenes. In this way, the final representation is constructed exactly as what it’s aiming to represent", said Martínez Teruel.
A total of 973 photographs were viewed, of which 224 were selected and, out of these, 68 made it to the final design. It’s these 68 images what make up, once superimposed on each other, the final image of the poster. The end result is an image that grew on its base and height, in a kaleidoscope of shirt colours, witness of the evolution and growth of the 'castells' world.
The author is also satisfied "with climbing this castell of photographic moments" and considers that "the final result condenses the history of the Concurs de Castells, since the first edition up until today, carrying the power of a living architecture".
The Concurs de Castells is organized by the Tarragona City Council in collaboration with the Torredembarra City Council. It has the institutional sponsorship of Diputació de Tarragona and Generalitat de Catalunya, the main sponsorship of Estrella Damm and Repsol, and the official sponsorship of BASF and CaixaBank. The official media are TAC12, La Xarxa+, Tarragona Ràdio, 3Cat and Catalunya Ràdio. The Coordinadora de Colles Castelleres de Catalunya supports the event.
Tarragona, Wednesday, the 15th of May, 2024.
