The Olympic Barcelona of 92 inspires this year's edition, where sports predominate

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Equipped with a helmet and a vest, Jan prepares to do an unprecedented activity. At only 8 years old, he and other children will be builders of the Sagrada Família for a while and will be able to learn from the director architect of the basilica, Jordi Faulí, how the giant towers of the temple were built. The activity is part of the Children's Festival, which started this Tuesday in Barcelona and has been attracting boys and girls for these dates for 60 years.


Jordi Navarro is Jan's grandfather and supervises from a distance the activities his grandson is enjoying this morning. He remembers with great emotion every time he has come punctually to this appointment, first with his son, decades ago, and now with the next generation. "It's a great event for kids to enjoy while learning," he sums up about the experience.


Attending the festival is a tradition for many families who did not want to miss the opening day. This is also the case of Óscar Cayuelas, who explains that when he was little his parents took him there every year: "I came there 40 years ago and now I want to continue coming there with my son", he says, while Hugo, 11, rests after skating for a while. It is the second time that the whole family (Hugo, Óscar and his wife, Ariadna) have visited the Children's Festival together. The first was six years ago, just before the name was changed to La Ciutat dels Somnis. Now that it has regained its original name, the family wanted to return.



The range of activities is varied and, this year, particularly focused on sport, as the source of inspiration for the edition is the Barcelona Olympic Games of 1992, coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the event. A giant inflatable Cobi, the mascot created by Mariscal for Barcelona '92, supervises the forty activities that take place simultaneously inside the Montjuïc site of La Fira de Barcelona: football, climbing, golf, basketball or volleyball, among many others.



Inside the festival you can swim in a ball pool, practice cycling, do a break dance session or step into the shoes of a professional footballer. This last option is offered by the activity organized by the Spanish RDC. The white-and-blue club has organized an exhibitor where boys and girls can play a football match, sign a contract with the team and even go through the press room to submit to journalists' questions.


The Children's Festival will be open until December 31. That is to say, few days but with a lot of concentrated offer and a primary objective on the part of the organizers: to promote not only sport but life and healthy habits among the little ones without them having to have a good time.