Human Castells!

We had read about them, seen plaques in squares in Gracia, and even a sculpture of one in Tarragona, but we had not seen a Catalan castell -- human tower. Today we did in Gracia.

First came the preliminaries. Bands marched into the Placa de la Revolución in Gracia, beating drums and blowing the distinctive Catalan shawns.
Followed by fireworks, with the participation of a dragon.

Then it was time to build castells. First, each casteller was wrapped tightly in a sash, which provides not only support, but also convenient foot and hand holds for the climbers.
A supporting base forms, with everyone pushing in to support the weight of the tower. The castellers who forms each level of the tower line up and begin to climb.Each level was made up of three or four castellers, each stands on the shoulders of those below and locks arms. As each level forms up, the next climbs over them..
Then two remarkably young children begin to climb, stepping on and grabbing sashes, shoulders, the backs of legs -- whatever they can use to pull themselves up. They climb all the way to the top, and raise a hand to the crowd. Then each crosses to the other side of the castell and shimmies down.
As each castell came down, another group of castellers would form and build their castell. We were about to leave, thinking each castell was formed the same way. And then another group began; altogether, we saw 5 or 6 castells. All were much the same -- until the last. It went up much like the others, but then they added a central pillar to their castell -- and left it freestanding with one of the children on top as the castell came down.
Impressive!