page_title: Summer Festival of Reus
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Summer Festival of Reus / Description
caption_attribution_description: El Aguila de Reus, Fiestas de Sant Pere
context_page_description: The Summer Festival of Reus is considered the most important festival of Reus. It is also known as the festival of Saint Peter. In addition, this celebration has been named as a Traditional Festival of National Interest by the Generalitat. It has dozens of events which revolve around the tronada.
context_section_description: The central and final day of the festival is celebrated on Saint Peter's day, 29 June, but there are several activities that are held before. The festival begins immediately after Saint John's festivities, celebrated on Mid Summer's Eve across Catalonia (Flama de Canigó) on 23 June. This solstice stretches out across the towns of the Baix Camp (a region in Catalonia), the parade of the giant Carrasclet, the parade of fire or the Devil’s dance, and the bonfire. On 24 June, in the Plenary Hall of the City, the Pregó (the opening of the festival) takes place. When finished, the award Tro de Festa is given to a distinguished person for having made an anonymous contribution to the festival. The pregoner ("town crier or bellman" in English), accompanied by a group of ministrels, makes an appeal from the balcony of the town hall and goes down to the Mercadal square in order to light off the first "tronada" of the festival. From the 25th to the 27th, a cannon goes outside in order to announce the festival. On 27th the Festa major Petita ("the small festival" in English) begins with small groups of children parading (they participate with traditional dances, depiction of biblical characters, allegorical representations, etc.).
  During the days from Saint John to Saint Peter, there are several festive events such as the Masclet (typical festival’s drink) parade, the Cossos (traditional games tournament), a traditional dinner made of beef and rice or the theatrical performance of the dance of the Ladies and the Old Men. The Saturday preceding Saint Peter, the Diada Castellera (name of a gathering where colles build castells) of Saint Peter is held. They also dance sardanes (Catalan popular dance), they hold all kind of concerts, fireworks, Barraques de Festa Major (concerts), etc. The week of the events culminates on the eve of Saint Peter, on 28 June. From 9 am to 5 pm, you can hear the bell of the tower ringing on the occasion of the festival, and see the parade of festive groups of the city, groups such as: L'Àguila (The eagle), Els Gegants (The giants), Els Nanos (The dwarves) and La Mulassa (The mule). At 8 pm, the seguici from Reus, with the relevant authorities, do a walk around St. Peter’s Priory. During the ceremony, the image of the saint is taken out from the church. The image is normally saved in a closed altar under a triple lock.
  The keys are held by the Major of the city, and Saint Peter’s prior. Formerly, they were also held by the community of priests. Nowadays, one of these keys is held by the oldest Monsignor of the city. After returning to the church, the second "tronada" begins, and then a firework explodes. This firework gives way to a series of activities in different parts of the city, lasting until dawn.
  In St. Peter’s Day, 29 June at 7 am, a parade formed by diverse groups of grallers and tabalers (musicians playing traditional music) takes place in the early morning. At 9 am, people normally light up firecrackers on el despertar de Reus ("the awakening of Reus"). At 10 am, the doors of the bell tower are open for the citizens, the only day of the year it can be visited.
  At half past eleven in the morning, the third tronada explodes and the exhibition of folkloric groups takes place in the middle of Mercadal Square. Later, they carry out the performance of the human towers with the Xiquets de Reus, which is the main group of human towers in Reus. On 29 June, the Seguici Festiu (a set of festive elements participating in the parades and processions), the authorities and the public meet again in Mercadal Square. They go in procession until St. Peter's Priory to search for the image of the patron saint, which is carried in procession until Mercadal Square and just at the time when it stops before the City Hall the last tronada is launched. During the procession, from the bell-tower, the Toc General de Festa (an event in which people ring a big bell) is performed. Afterwards, the Seguici returns to St. Peter's Priory and at the time the Image enters the church, all festive elements burst into dance at the same 
caption: Eagle in Reus
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK DC280 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "192", "Image YResolution": "192", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:07:03 21:52:05", "Image Artist": "Salvador S\u00e1inz", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "KODAK DC280 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "838", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10671", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "24/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2003:06:22 17:35:43", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2003:06:22 17:35:43", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "37/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "113/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "500", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "584", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "712", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}