Filling the Sink

On May 30th, under sun, thunder, and lightning, Primavera Sound, the biggest festival in Spain descended on Barcelona’s Parc del Fòrum for the 22nd time, kicking off this year’s summer festival season in Catalonia.

With a solid mix of Catalan summer hits, rock bangers, catchy pop tunes, and international names such as Lana Del Rey, Pulp, Deftones, and Troye Sivan, the 268,000 attendees were in for the party of the year.

We talk to ...

Since 1980, at the end of May, the western Catalan city of Lleida becomes the snail center of Catalonia, where hundreds of people get together to celebrate the annual Catalan Snail Gathering, or l’Aplec del cargol in Catalan.

Fans of the tiny molluscs unite for a weekend of gastronomy, but also of competitions, concerts, and the Catalan human towers, castells.

For this last edition of the festival, a whopping 15 tons of snails were...

Finding affordable housing has long been a problem in Catalonia and Spain, and in March, the Spanish government introduced a reference index for rent prices to keep them from rising.

But the new rent cap created loopholes and had the opposite effect of increasing prices on short-term leases, while long-term housing became even harder to find.

In response, the Catalan government rushed through regulations but failed to garner the su...

The Catalan snap election is over, and the voters gave the Catalan Socialist Party, PSC, a whopping 28% of the vote, which translates into 42 seats. But falling short of an absolute majority of 68 seats, the results mean that the Socialists now have to find new alliances to form a government.

This episode of Filling the Sink was recorded bright and early on the first morning of the new political cycle.

Gerard Eschaich Folch joins L...

On May 11, we celebrate the 120th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Catalan artist Salvador Dalí, whose influence on the art world continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

The surrealist painter was born in the northern Catalan town of Figueres, but spent most of his life in the picturesque coastal towns of Cadaques and Port Lligat, from where he drew much of his inspiration.

Although Dalí was best known for his surreali...

The Catalan election season is in full swing – once again.

On March 18th, Catalan President Pere Aragonès announced that he was dissolving the Catalan parliament and calling for a snap election on May 12th.

The news came after the government failed to secure a majority to pass the 2024 budget.

Calling for early elections in Catalonia is nothing new, as it has been 14 years since a government last served the full four-year term, and...

Sant Jordi or Saint George is the patron saint of Catalonia, and April 23 is the day when Catalans celebrate love, roses, romance, and also books. 

This week's episode is recorded from the bookshop Backstory in the heart of Barcelona. 

We explain what makes this day special and why people give each other roses and books. We learn about the legend of Sant Jordi and how this day became World Book Day promoted by UNESCO in 1995. 

We m...

As the weather gets warmer, more and more people will want to go to the beach. But lately, some of the beaches in Catalonia have looked quite different. 

In some places, the beaches look like they have been swallowed by the sea. The reason for this is the recent storm Nelson, which hit the Catalan coast during this past Easter. Nelson caused an unprecedented loss of sand on some of Catalonia’s beaches, in some cases reducing the wi...

Barcelona’s take on fashion week is the bi-annual event 080 Barcelona Fashion, which this season runs from April 9 to April 12.

The event has been held at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site since 2013, and during the 33rd edition celebrated this week, a mix of 24 emerging designers and established brands presented their idea of what should be in vogue in 2024. 

Over the years, 080 Barcelona Fashion has gone from being a locally focused ...

The number of indoor climbing gyms in Catalonia has multiplied by four in just ten years, making climbing a lifestyle phenomenon and another way of connecting with people. 

At the same time, the mountainous landscapes of Catalonia have become some of the most visited destinations for outdoor climbing.  

In this episode, Oriol Escudé Macià joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to chat about the Catalan bouldering boom, and we also discuss wheth...

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the opening of the notorious La Model prison, located in the Eixample district of Barcelona. 

The facility closed in 2017 and has since become a site for Catalan historic memory, open to the public. Behind its high beige walls lies the history of a prison that sought to be exemplary, but during the Franco dictatorship held thousands of political prisoners, many of whom were tortured or execu...

In January 2024, the Catalan government joined other European countries in the fight to regulate the use of mobile phones by young children.  

A new set of regulations restricting the use of mobile phones in Catalan primary or secondary schools starting from the 2024/2025 academic year saw the light of day. 

But the idea behind the regulations didn’t come from the Catalan politicians themselves, but from the parent initiative Adole...

Society of the Snow and Robot Dreams miss out on coveted Academy Awards, but plenty of fun is had along the way. 

In Los Angeles, Natàlia Segura catches up with the nominees – Barcelona filmmaker JA Bayona, director of Society of the Snow, Montse Ribé and David Martí, nominated in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category for their work on the same film, and Pablo Berger, director of Catalan production Robot Dreams, nominated for Be...

March 8 is International Women's Day. To mark the occasion, Filling the Sink pays homage to ten women who changed Catalonia. 

Writer Caterina Albert (aka Victor Català), educator Francesca Bonnemaison, anarcho-syndicalist Teresa Claramunt, trans activist Silvia Reyes, flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya, operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé, singer and songwriter Rosalía, chef Carme Ruscalleda, middle-distance runner Carmen Valero, and foo...

The world's biggest mobile technology fair is taking place in Barcelona once again, but Mobile World Congress goes way beyond phones. MWC 2024 showcases all kinds of emerging technology from tech giants such as Samsung, Google, Huawei and Microsoft, with artificial intelligence the buzzword on everyone's lips. 

Lorcan Doherty chats AI with Mobileum founder Avnish Chauhan, Dell's beer guy (and business development manager) Warren Ja...

All across Europe, farmers are protesting, stopping traffic with their tractors to sound the alarm on what many feel is the slow death of the agricultural sector.

On February 6, Catalan farmers drove their tractors out of the fields, draped them with slogans such as “La nostra fi, la vostra fam”, or “Our end, your hunger” and marched slowly but determinedly toward Barcelona in one of the largest coordinated protests in years. 

We h...

Viquipèdia, the Catalan version of the free, collaborative online encyclopedia, is a real success story, with almost 750,000 articles and over 1,000 active editors.

Wikipedians Xavier Dengra and Àlex Hinojo explain what drives them to volunteer their free time and contribute their knowledge to the project.

Lea Beliaeva chats to Núria Ribas, president of Amical Wikipedia, and Carme Fenoll, a wikipedian and librarian, about gender bi...

Record stores and listening bars are popping up everywhere in Barcelona. Vinyl sales in Catalonia surpassed CD sales in 2023 for the first time since the 1980s. Why has this old, impractical way of listening to music gained popularity in a time when everyone can access whatever music they want on their phones?

Lorcan Doherty joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to chat about the vinyl revival. Carlos from Surco and Marc from Wah Wah explain h...

Catalonia's number one football team has always been FC Barcelona, until now!

Tiny Girona FC are making it big, battling it out at the top of La Liga in just their fourth season ever in Spain's top division.

Cillian Shields joins Lorcan Doherty to chat about the players and manager making the miracles happen.

Pepe Sierra, a Girona fanatic and president of the federation of Girona supporters' clubs, and Eduard Solà, a journalist at ...