Sitges is celebrating the feast day of Corpus Christ, which has been declared a Heritage Festival of National Interest, from 15 to 29 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.

Corpus Christi will explode in Sitges on Sunday 22 June with the floral rugs and the procession, but the programme of events is filled with activities for all ages and new ones like the ‘Joc de les Festes’, a board game whose theme is the three main popular festivals in Sitges (Carnaval, Corpus Christi and the Town Festival). This year the game will be sold for 30 euros at a date after Corpus which will be announced in the upcoming weeks. 

The mayor of Sitges, Aurora Carbonell Abella, has stated that ‘we are going to enjoy an incredible Corpus Christi again, where we aren’t turning our back on the more traditional events but have also managed to update and enhance the festivities’. In this vein, the councillor for Festivals and Traditions, Eva Martín Martínez, said that ‘we have spiffed up the new city giants, because maintaining our heritage is essential’. She adds that ‘with the Joc de les Festes, we can make a qualitative leap in spreading the word and teaching about Corpus Christi, as well as the Town Festival and Carnaval’.  

In the 2025 edition, there will be 31 stretches of roads 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.

In addition to the flowers that come from the City Council and the Commission, many others will be on display on Sunday 22 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. 

One of the carpets raising the most anticipation this year is on the first stretch of Carrer Jesús, which is also in charge of the Cap de la Vila carpet this year. The president of the Corpus Commission, Eduard Tomàs Sanahuja, says that ‘the carpet on the first stretch of Carrer Jesús and the Cap de la Vila carpet will be special because they will be connected for the very first time’. Tomàs stresses that ‘the festival is possible thanks to the work of a Commission that thinks about Corpus Christi all year long, obviously with the help of residents and the groups that make the carpets’.

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 31 floral carpets. Five hundred more people will participate in the Corpus Christi procession on the afternoon of Sunday 22 June, including the four pairs of giants (the City Giants will be there along with the new and old 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, will be held again this year in the gardens of the Hospital de Sant Joan. 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 speaker for Sitges’s 2025 Corpus Christi celebrations is Roser Forgas Sampedro, a journalist from Sitges who has experienced this festival her entire life in different roles. Forgas will make the Carnation Speech in another iconic location in Sitges: El Racó de la Calma.

The Minerva pennant holder will be Montserrat Mirabent Baqués, who helped make the floral carpet on the third stretch of Carrer Jesús and who represents the residents who have been organising themselves intergenerationally to make the carpets for over 75 years. 

The designer of the poster and image of Corpus Christi this year is Núria Camps, an artist who uses photography to capture the aesthetic elegance that permeates the entire Corpus Christi celebration.

The extensive programme of events includes activities for all ages. In fact, one of the new aspects this year is the ‘Joc de les Festes de Sitges’, a board game designed to be played by most ages which is based on questions and answers about Carnaval, Corpus Christi and the Town Festival.