Correfocs started almost by accident, when people began running through the sparks and flames of early “hell” performances. What began as reckless fun, with only a loose sense of danger, gradually took hold and spread across Catalonia, shaping a new tradition. From that moment on, it was the crowd that took centre stage, stepping straight into hell itself.
Being a weather forecaster here comes with its own twist. At least once a year, you are expected to call fire and sparks from the sky, and warn that night will be so bright it feels like day. There is no need for concern, people are used to it. The roots of correfocs go back to the 12th century, and in Barcelona fire has been part of public life for around 800 years.
What began in religious processions (themselves linked to older pagan traditions) gradually evolved into something more festive, until it became the correfocs we know today, almost by itself.
At its origins, it was one of the most direct and vivid ways of imagining evil, and what happens when you get too close.
A kind of love story
Correfocs are as striking as they are easy to grasp. Colles de diables (groups of devils) take over narrow, often claustrophobic streets in old town centres, setting off pyrotechnics that send sparks flying in every direction as they move and dance through the crowd. The aim is simple: don’t get burned, or at least not too badly, as you jump, dance and sing to the beat of the drums.
This “apology of fire” is not some whim of a reckless crowd, but something born of an ancient imagination in which devils represented evil, temptation and chaos. Stepping into the middle of it, moving and dancing with them while taking the risk, is a way of facing it head-on, taming it, laughing at it and making it your own, while testing your limits and endurance. The lesson is simple and still holds: play with fire and you will get burned.
Local advice: it might sound counterintuitive, but you are often safest right next to the devils.
To be a devil is not just about looking the part. It takes a taste for fire, a steady hand with fireworks and a fair tolerance for heat.
Devils on the ground
The Dantesque spectacle is brought to life by the colles de diables. Ordinary people with a carefully controlled fondness for pyrotechnics and a willingness to carry fire-spewing contraptions wherever needed, all while dressed as devils.
There are many across the region. Some are small groups of devils running and dancing through the crowd. Others come with wooden beasts, dragons and other mythical creatures loaded with firecrackers. Some go even further, with constructions and moving structures that turn the whole thing into a carefully orchestrated form of chaos. Fire performers in the truest sense of the word.
