Sitges is celebrating the feast day of Corpus Christi, which has been declared a Heritage Festival of National Interest, from 5 to 14 June this year. During that time, the more traditional and long-standing events, such as the floral carpets, will be combined with new events that complement the festivities. More than 370,000 carnations, among other flowers, will be made available to the 1,200 people who will create thirty floral carpets on the streets on Sunday 7 June.

The biggest Corpus Christi explosion in Sitges will be on Sunday 7 June with the flower carpets and the procession, but the programme is filled with activities for all ages and new events especially designed for this year. One of them is the exhibition at the Mercat Vell, which will have a minimalist mise-en-scène that will immerse visitors in Corpus Christi since the early 1950s. The long history of the Procession can be traced by the spectacular images of the carpets. This show will reveal how the carpets have evolved; they were first designed individually for each façade but were later transformed into a joint effort of local residents to make a unique collective design. This brought together the residents of each stretch of the street, so Corpus Christi became a celebration with a sense of collective belonging on the streets.

370,000 carnations

The 2026 edition of Corpus Christi in Sitges is reaching record number of participants and flowers: there will be 30 stretches of road covered with floral carpets, which means around 3,000 square metres bedecked in flowers. To do so, 370,000 carnations, two tonnes of straw, 500 square metres of grass and 500 more of cypress trees will be used. Not only will main white and red carnations be displayed, but they will be accompanied by St John’s wort, bougainvillea, marigolds, daisies and lavender. These figures make Sitges a standout in Corpus Christi and especially in this ephemeral art of floral carpets.

In addition to the flowers that come from the City Council and the Commission, many others will be on display on Sunday 7 June in the carpets, which spring from a desire to participate in Corpus Christi. That is, the participation of residents and friends and family means that some flowers are from private gardens while others are purchased at florist shops. One of the special cases is the grass, which comes from the municipal landscaping and the Terramar Golf Club, an active partner in the festivities. 

The most anxiously-awaited carpets of the year include the one in Cap de la Vila, which will be made by the Escola Miquel Utrillo on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. It is the first time a primary school has tackled this challenge in Cap de la Vila, and they are doing so with the artistic support of the renowned illustrator Pilarín Bayés.

Beyond making the floral carpets, the scope of the Corpus Christi programme means that an estimated 2,000 people will participate in the festival. Around 1,200 people are involved in the 30 floral carpets. Five hundred more people will participate in the Corpus Christi Procession on the afternoon of Sunday 7 June, including three pairs of giants, the Dragon, the Eagle, the Moixiganga dancers, the ‘gralla’ players, the heirs and heiresses, the communion children, the people accompanying the Procession and the musicians. Plus, residents, families and friends also play an essential role in the decoration of the façades and balconies, the display of the giants the evening before and the carnation exhibition, which will be still be held in the gardens of the Hospital de Sant Joan this year. In fact, one of the most popular events, the Carnation Exhibition, will be bring together 31 exhibitors, including five schools from Sitges which have gotten involved in growing carnations. A total of 1,200 carnations will be on display, each with its own pot-and-frame.

The opening speech of Corpus Christi 2026 in Sitges will be delivered by Ester Font Vendrell and Dani Vallès Godia, creators of the Visit Sitges website who have taken pictures of the festival for years. They will deliver their Pregó del clavell [Carnation Speech] in Racó de la Calma on Friday 5 June at 10 pm. 

The person carrying the Minerva Banner is Rosa Junyent Sabaté in honour of the first stretch of Carrer Major, which is celebrating 75 years of making floral carpets. This is one of the stretches of carpeted streets with the longest history and a clear example of the sense of neighbourliness and group cohesion that Corpus Christi has fostered. Rosa Junyent Sabaté is part of a line that spans the past, present and future on this first stretch of Carrer Major. Over the years, the family has shared many Corpus Christi festivities with the residents who live there and moved there, but this stretch of the road has always been their carpet in Corpus Christi in Sitges. This good relationship means that there has never been a dearth of designs, people to lend a hand, homes where flowers are stored or prepared and even generous donations to make the festival even more special. The first stretch of Carrer Major is one of the points that has won the most prizes, as proven by the commemorative tiles on the façades on the street.  

The artist who made the poster and the image of Corpus Christi this year is Pilar Mena Cervigón, who wanted to convey the soul of Corpus Christi Sitges in the midst of the arrival of the light and colour on these early days of June. The Corpus Christi Sitges 2026 poster also captures the essence of the festival with a delicate symbolic image: a heart turned into a vase of flowers, from which life, nature and imagination spring, and from which the festival blossoms.

The extensive programme of events includes activities for all ages. Precisely one of the new features in 2026 is the exhibition at Mercat Vell on the evolution of carpets since the 1950s and the Vermut [snack] scheduled for Sunday 7 June. This Vermut takes over from the xocolatada [chocolate fest] as a gathering point for everyone who has participated in making the carpets. There will be areas for children’s games, but the goal is also to create an opportunity for people to gather and chat to share experiences of how the floral carpet celebration went this year.