Tarragona City Council will mark Catalonia’s National Day, the Diada, with a ceremony at the Rafael Casanova monument from 9.55am on Friday 11 September. The annual municipal observance will include floral tributes, music, poetry and simultaneous pillar-building displays by Tarragona’s four castelleres, or human-tower groups.

For Tarragona residents, the programme centres on the city’s principal official Diada event, before Mayor Rubén Viñuales attends two further public commemorative and cultural appointments later that day.

Music, poetry and floral tributes from 9.55am

The Banda Unió Musical de Tarragona will open the ceremony with La Santa Espina and És la Moreneta. The Cor Ciutat de Tarragona will then perform Nova Primavera, composed by Tarragona musician Marian Márquez, with lyrics by writer Olga Xirinacs, who is celebrating her 90th birthday this year.

Viñuales will give the institutional address. Actor Raquel Estrada will read a poem in a production with staging and sound design by Tarragona company Evohé.

  • Tarragona’s castelleres will simultaneously perform Pilars d’homenatge, tribute pillars formed by human-tower teams.
  • The Cor Gregal choir will perform El Cant del Poble.
  • Floral tributes will follow, and the ceremony will end with Els Segadors.

Allende tribute and Castells competition draw

At 11.30am, the mayor will take part in a tribute to Salvador Allende at the Jardins del Camp de Mart. The event adds a separate memorial ceremony to Tarragona’s Diada programme.

At 7pm, Viñuales will attend the draw for the 30th Concurs de Castells at the Auditori Pau Casals in El Vendrell. The draw will determine both each participating team’s position in the arena and its performance order across the competition’s three days, making it a key organisational event for Tarragona’s castelleres and their supporters.

The draw is being held in the Baix Penedès town during the 150th anniversary commemorations of Pau Casals’ birth. El Vendrell’s council says the programme runs from 2026 to October 2027; Casals chaired the jury at the first Castells competitions.

Primary sources: elvendrell.net. Reported by tarragonaradio.cat, tarragona.cat, modernetdigital.cat, DiariTots21, rtvvilafranca.cat, Diari de Tarragona, OnaCat.Ràdio, tarragonadigital.com, Tarragona Ràdio.