The 9th edition of Benvinguts a Pagès La Festa takes place on 1 and 2 June to champion Catalonia's rural and agri-food sector

Benvinguts a Pagès La Festa will take place on 1 and 2 June across Catalonia. The great celebration of Catalan farming returns to spring, one of this year's most notable changes, responding to a request from primary sector professionals. Bookings for this year's edition open this week through the initiative's website.

More than 450 agritourism experiences will take place simultaneously across Catalonia that weekend, at close to 90 farms, 150 accommodation providers, 50 activity organisers, 10 producers and more than 150 restaurants registered so far. Over the coming weeks, registration will remain open to new participants, in order to keep expanding the offering and build a complete, diverse programme representative of the whole Catalan territory.

Places for the various experiences organised across the territory are limited, so visitors must book in advance and plan their route through the website, which acts as the booking centre and allows a broad, detailed search of everything organised for the 9th edition. This year visitors over 15 will pay €2 as a booking fee. It is a symbolic payment that secures the place and acknowledges the work of the farmers, who will welcome thousands of visitors over the weekend and must plan their schedule according to how many people sign up for each activity. Planning ahead is essential so that organisers can prepare for La Festa properly and ensure the quality and productivity of the visits. 

Benvinguts a Pagès La Festa, an educational and fun agritourism initiative reaching its 9th edition in 2024, aims to underline the essential work of the primary sector and to spread awareness of the origin and importance of buying and consuming local produce, as well as the work of food sector professionals in society, who make possible a sustainable, safe, resilient, healthy and universally accessible food system.

Over that weekend the public will have the chance to discover business projects rooted in the territory that contribute to the local and economic development of rural areas; meet the people who make the products they can taste and buy directly at the farms; enjoy a local tourism experience; and sample traditional Catalan cooking at the restaurants in this year's programme. 

The mission is to bring producers and consumers closer, highlighting the distinctive attributes of all the participating businesses, building rapport and connection between producers, processors, restaurateurs and consumers, and bringing the urban world and farming closer together. 

What's new in 2024: cutting the carbon footprint and food producers

One of this year's most noticeable changes is that the event is held in June again, with the aim of making the weekend coincide with the peak season and harvest of the fruit and vegetable sector, as well as with good weather and the prelude to summer. In recent editions Benvinguts a Pagès La Festa took place in autumn. The change of dates responds to a request from producers in the sector and to the aim of continuing to strengthen the initiative. 

Also in 2024, Benvinguts a Pagès La Festa continues its firm commitment to being a planet-friendly event. More tools and resources have therefore been introduced to promote sustainability and reduce the carbon footprint, with actions aimed at future visitors. On the one hand, participants are given information on the various green charging points for electric vehicles across the territory through the website Electromaps, to promote electric, green and sustainable mobility. On the other, visitors are also encouraged to use shared transport, through the car-sharing platform Som Mobilitat, so they can organise themselves as a network, reduce the number of journeys and use transport responsibly. 

In addition, this year, thanks to the success of the pilot launched in 2023, the food producers category has been extended to the whole of Catalonia. It is a bid to give visibility and recognition to Catalan products, promoting the business projects and food offering of producers across Catalonia and showing how products are made in Catalan workshops. These are companies that do not grow the agricultural product themselves but buy raw materials from local producers to make their own products.

An agritourism offering for every day of the year

The Benvinguts a Pagès experience does not end with La Festa: the project continues 365 days a year, thanks to Benvinguts a Pagès Tot l'Any, which offers more than 120 paid farm visits, product-making workshops, school activities, role-playing games, tastings and other activities. All these experiences are complemented by 16 agritourism routes, ready for visitors to follow or to inspire their own itinerary, including recommendations for cultural and scenic visits across the territory: Costa Brava, the Pyrenees, Terres de Lleida, Costa Daurada, Terres de l'Ebre, Costa de Barcelona...