The W Barcelona Hotel viewed from the coast

Barcelona in June

As the final frontier before the gargantuan waves of summer tourism, June serves as a unique period of limbo for Barcelona quite unlike the rest of the year. Combining both the early bird tranquility of off-season travel and the electric ambience of peak tourism levels, June sees Barcelona at what is perhaps its most genuine.

Whether you’re most keen on its buzzing nightlife, world-renowned beaches, celebrated cultural sites or wealth of incredible events and festivals, a visit to Barcelona in June is sure to help you experience the city at its best.

Tourism in June

June in Barcelona, as in May, serves as somewhat of a transitive stage for the city. With the winter tourism lull now long passed and the waves of summer visitors yet to come, the May and June ‘shoulder season’ sees tourism rates somewhere in the middle of the two.

Many consider this period the best time to visit Barcelona, offering the best of both worlds of the city’s famous bustling atmosphere and nightlife without the overcrowding and queues characteristic of summertime traffic. Visitors in June get the rare chance both to see the Catalan capital thriving with life and to experience its attractions, culture and history without much of a hitch.

Visiting Barcelona in June therefore offers a fantastic opportunity to experience the city at its best. Take yourself on a tour of Catalonia’s most celebrated architecture, explore the many cultural hotspots atop Montjuïc, or walk in the footsteps of your favorite soccer legends at Camp Nou.

Weather in June

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June brings with it very pleasant temperatures typically falling between the mid-60s and high-70s, alongside some fairly consistent sunshine and a relatively low chance of rain. That gives June a slight edge on May’s more mild weather and the often overly hot and humid summer climate.

If sunbathing on the beach, going for a dip in the Mediterranean or taking a relaxing stroll through the park are up your alley, June is the ideal time to do so. You’ll get to enjoy some of the best weather of the year without having to share it with quite so many others!

What to Do in June

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While the vast majority of Barcelona can be enjoyed throughout the year, conditions in June are ideal for more outdoor-based activities. At the same time, the steadily increasing tourist numbers also mean that the most popular indoor attractions such as the Sagrada Familia can become pretty busy at times.

If you’re looking to make the most of the weather, the city’s famous beaches and vast selection of parks are the best way forward. Although they’re bound to be relatively busy with many other visitors having the same idea, they’ll still be far less crowded than in the summer months. And what’s more, aside from the likes of Park Güell’s Monumental Zone, most of them are totally free to enjoy!

In much the same way, the weather in June makes it a perfect time to take a tour of the city’s famous diversity of architecture. Spread across the city, you can easily spend a full day or two exploring the works of celebrated Modernist architects like Antoni Gaudí, alongside the more historical buildings common throughout the Gothic Quarter.

Music Festivals

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Primavera Sound Festival – Typically held in early June, Primavera Sound stands as one of the city’s most hotly anticipated music festivals. In contrast to many other music events taking place throughout the year, Primavera Sound is host to a diverse lineup of genres comprising everything from jazz and hip hop to folk and alternative rock.

Previous editions of the festival have performances from the likes of Arcade Fire, Pet Shop Boys and White Stripes. While the main sets typically take place over the course of a weekend, the event runs for around a week in total, with additional gigs and performances hosted across the city.

Sónar Festival – One of the oldest and most well-known festivals in Europe, Sónar brings together thousands of electronic music fans from across the continent. Taking place over a weekend in mid-June, the festival is typically split into three events, often held in different locations.

Sónar de Día offers a selection of concerts and performances taking place throughout the day. Sónar de Noche takes the event into the evening, showcasing some of the biggest names in the electronic scene. Sónar+D offers an accompanying program of creative technology experiences, including digital workshops, product tests and hands-on virtual reality activities.

Brunch in the City/Park – June serves as somewhat of a bridge between these two long-running events. Brunch in the City runs from March to June and consists of weekly electronic festivals featuring various international DJs, along with food and beer tents and activities for all ages.

The City edition of the event is often regarded as a warm-up to the main summer event, Brunch in the Park. Held on Montjuïc, the Park edition offers much of the same as its little brother, only on a larger scale and running from late June to September.

Festival Jardins Pedralbes – Hosted in the gardens of the Palau Reial de Pedralbes, this open-air music festival is host to a series of concerts throughout June. The event showcases both big international names and emerging artists between its two stages. The pleasantly cool evenings of June serve as a fantastic opportunity to relax in these historical gardens with a glass of cava and enjoy a fantastic variety of musical performances.

Local & Cultural Events

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Nit de Sant Joan – Held in celebration of the Summer Solstice, the Feast of Sant Joan is a truly electric event and host to a plethora of crazy parties. Often known as the Nit del Foc (Night of Fire), locals embrace the coming of summer with fireworks and fire displays.

Many hold their own parties with friends to celebrate this shortest night of the year, while others take to the beach with picnics and cava to enjoy the bustling ambience. Groups of musicians and performers will also often come together to provide a live soundtrack to the festivities.

Corpus Christi – One of the oldest celebrations in Barcelona, the Día del Corpus Christi is a Catholic festival held in honor of the Eucharist. The festival dates back over six centuries and is truly a sight to behold, most notably for the Processó de Corpus Christi and Giants’ Ball processions featuring various giant religious figures and animals of Catalan legends.

Barcelona Gay Pride – Joining many other major cities in celebrating the LGBT community, Barcelona’s Gay Pride festival takes place over the course of a week in late June. The event is host to a variety of activities, live performances, talks and exhibitions, culminating with a fun and engaging parade open to all who wish to join.

Wrapping Up

While every traveler varies in their preferences, it’s difficult to dispute June as one of the very best times to visit Barcelona. Offering peak weather conditions, a bustling yet not overly busy atmosphere and a whole host of exciting events, Barcelona in June truly offers a fantastic balance for just about any visitor to enjoy.

Robert Heaney

Go City Travel Expert

Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art or Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) Comparison

Barcelona ain’t no shrinking violet when it comes to great art. This, after all, is a city that nurtured the work of Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, all of whom are of course well represented in the city’s galleries and museums. But you need only wander the atmospheric streets to catch a glimpse of the good stuff, from edgy Poblenou street art to the eye-popping Gaudí architecture that characterizes Eixample and its most celebrated building, the mighty Sagrada Família. Aficionados of fine art will likely also have the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya on their lists. But what does each have to offer? We take a close-up look in our MACBA vs MNAC comparison. Read on for the gen… Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art: The Lowdown Vital Statistics: Opened in 1995, MACBA is Barcelona’s premier museum of contemporary art, a great white sugar cube of a building located in El Raval neighborhood, a few blocks from the fabulous Gothic Quarter. The permanent collection of 5,000 works is exhibited across 45,000 square feet of gallery space, attracting over 300,000 visitors every year. MACBA in Brief: Aficionados of post-war art, particularly of the Spanish and Catalan variety, will find much to admire at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. Here’s where you can ogle iconic pieces by the likes of Picasso, Joan Miró and Juan Muñoz across several themed zones, as well as taking in rotating exhibitions celebrating experimental works by established and emerging international artists like Alexander Calder, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the Guerrilla Girls. The MACBA building is something of a contemporary art icon itself; a modern, minimal Richard Meir-designed space with white walls, clean lines and plenty of natural light, that allows the artworks to speak for themselves. Don’t miss the striking central courtyard and the skateboarders out front, who are as much a part of the furniture here as the eye-popping art inside. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya: The Lowdown Vital Statistics: An extraordinary collection spanning some 1,000 years of Catalan art, MNAC has been operating since 1934 here at the Palau Nacional, an Italianate confection high on Montjuïc hill that's almost as spectacular as the 300,000-strong collection it houses. At 113,000 square feet, it’s well over twice the size of MACBA, and pulls in close to a million annual visitors. MNAC in Brief: The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (aka the National Art Museum of Catalonia; aka MNAC) is perhaps the planet’s best museum if you’re in the market for an overview of Catalan art across the centuries. We’re talking everything from thousand-year-old Romanesque church murals to medieval Gothic art, Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces, and works from the likes of Titian, Canaletto, Velázquez, Gaudí and more. Again, the building housing the collection only adds to the appeal, with a central dome inspired by St Peter's Basilica and a quartet of towers that nod to the architecture of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. MACBA: Highlights & What to Expect The gallery spaces at MACBA really allow the art to shine, and it’s rarely so busy that you’re trying to glimpse that elusive Miró masterpiece over a sea of heads. The collection is also helpfully arranged into zones covering three distinct periods of modern art: the forties to the sixties, the sixties and seventies, and the contemporary period. The focus here is primarily on post-1945 Catalan and Spanish art, although some international artists are also represented, especially at rotating exhibitions which are well advertised on the official museum website. Highlights of the permanent collection include: Joan Miró’s ‘Oiseau’ sculptures are something of a centerpiece of MACBA: a mind-boggling collection of stylized heads, birds and other characters in bronze and terracotta. ‘Sterno’ is a celebrated 1985 piece by Neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. His homage to Afro-American cultural heroes features the intense brushstrokes and voodoo images that characterize his work. Spanish artist Ignasi Aballí pushes the boundaries of contemporary art with an approach that uses multiple layers of varnish and correction fluid to ‘suggest the presence of a painting rather than show the painting directly’. ‘Gran Error’ (‘Big Mistake’) is a thought-provoking case in point. Pro-tip: entry to MACBA is free after 4PM on Saturdays. You can also save money on entry with a Barcelona pass from Go City, which includes access to MACBA and many more attractions, activities and tours around the city, including Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, a guided tour of the Sagrada Família, and more. Find out more about the pass and buy yours here. MNAC: Highlights & What to Expect There’s plenty more to see inside once you’re done gazing in awe at the soaring domes and Romanesque towers of the Palau Nacional’s stunning exterior – as well as the sweeping city views from atop Montjuïc hill. Weekday mornings are generally the best time to visit, especially outside of the summer season, when you’re far more likely to get to view the collection’s highlights unimpeded by fellow tourists. And oh, what highlights await within, such as… The Romanesque collection is perhaps the best and most important on the planet, an absolute treasure trove of Catalonian religious art from the 11th and 12th centuries, taking in frescoes, murals, stone carvings, intricately detailed wood panels and more. If you only see one piece, make it the ‘Apse of Sant Climent de Taull’, a colorful wall mural by the Master of Taull, one of 12th-century Europe’s absolute legends of Romanesque art. A key influence on Picasso, it’s quite the sight, and has been lovingly transferred onto a replica of its original apse at MNAC, for maximum authenticity. It may not look very comfortable, but Gaudí’s double sofa is a fine example of his lesser-spotted interior design work. Made for his Casa Batlló, it eschews right angles and straight lines in favor of ascending to the status of design icon. It’s displayed with the Modern Art Collection, alongside classical sculpture by Damià Campeny, landscape paintings by Joaquim Vayreda and much more. The Mural paintings of the Conquest of Majorca is effectively the Catalan Bayeux Tapestry, and its series of frescoes representing the titular 13th-century conquest dominates the museum’s Gothic art section. Not to be missed. Pro-tip: admission to MNAC is free after 3PM on Saturdays and on the first Sunday of each month. You can book tickets for these as well as paid entry slots here. Save on Attractions, Tours and Activities in Barcelona Save money on Barcelona attractions, tours and activities with a pass from Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.

Stuart Bak

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