Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) will be presenting some of the mobility challenges facing big cities today, such as the transformation of car parks into mobility services centres 

The B:SM stand will be hosting talks, dialogues and presentations on the smart rollout of the Endolla Barcelona electromobility network and last-mile goods delivery solutions

Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), one of the city’s main mobility operators, will be taking part for the first time in the Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress (TMWC), which is being held together with the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) at Fira Barcelona Gran Via from 15 to 17 November. 

B:SM will have its own stand of 80 m2 in Hall 2, introducing some of the main projects through which the company is fostering increasingly sustainable, planned, shared and digital mobility in Barcelona. There will also be a special emphasis on the strategy being promoted to integrate new mobility services into the B:SM car park network, the largest in the city with 45 facilities. 

The B:SM stand will also be taking advantage of the three-day event to host roundtables addressing some of the future challenges facing cities such as Barcelona when it comes to mobility. The activities kick off in the morning on Tuesday, 15 November, with a dialogue on the project to turn car parks into new mobility services hubs. The session will also be focusing on the contribution of these facilities to fostering more sustainable and orderly mobility, the onus being on people’s well-being. 

During Tuesday afternoon, the stand will host a roundtable on the importance that urban goods distribution in urban areas will have in the future. Different speakers from B:SM, the municipal sphere and companies in this sector will also be outlining the latest trends in this field, plus the projects being developed to facilitate new solutions for the distribution of last-mile goods in increasingly dense and compact urban settings. 

The following day, Wednesday 16 November, there is a round able on electromobility, which will look at Endolla Barcelona’s strategy for supporting city residents and the sector in deploying electric mobility. 

Finally, on Thursday 17, the head of New Mobility at B:SM, Redha Zetchi, will be giving a talk entitled “The role of car parks in the future of cities”, at the fair’s main discussion space. 

Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), the project’s promoter, together with Barcelona Activa and the Barcelona Sports Institute (IBE), will this month begin the procedures for awarding management of the incubator 

The venue will be able to host up to 14 start-ups and will offer acceleration programmes, training and pilot tests as well as organising events to boost the sector  

The incubator will feature a large co-working area, interconnected work modules and rooms for communal use, and also a 400 m2 green zone for holding meetings  

Work on remodelling the 1,100 m2 space that will house the facility has been progressing at a good pace since the summer 

The Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium is on the home straight with regard to setting up the city's first incubator for sport and technology projects. It will be all set to take in the first start-ups from spring 2023. The aim is to promote and support the creation of innovative enterprises in the field of sport, favouring their growth and facilitating their positioning in the city’s business fabric.

Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), which is promoting the project in collaboration with Barcelona Activa and the Barcelona Sports Institute, will launch the public tender in November to award the contract for managing and promoting this pioneering space. The company that wins the contract will be responsible for attracting target enterprises, managing the day-to-day activity and promoting the space to secure investment and capture talent from the sector. 

The incubator should be able to house up to 14 start-ups linked to the world of sport, innovation and technology. It is also hoped that it will have the support of small, medium-sized and big companies. 

The enterprises and entrepreneurs housed in the incubator will have access to support and acceleration programmes, run by strategic partners from the sport and new technologies sector. Moreover, the incubator will be able to offer training to the general public and the sector, organise activities as well as dissemination and networking events, and facilitate test beds, concept testing and sports experiments, both in the incubator itself and in other facilities within the Olympic Ring.

In the opinion of Jaume Collboni, the First Deputy Mayor and Chair of B:SM, “by starting up this incubator, Barcelona is once again an example of how Olympic infrastructures can continue to generate social and economic return, by being the spearhead of a city strategy that aims to promote the development of an emerging sector based on local talent and public-private collaboration”. 

David Escudé, the Councillor for Sport, recalled the importance of this incubator in the larger umbrella project it is part of: “with the creation of this incubator, where the most innovative technological projects will be promoted, we are taking the first big step towards our new hub, a pioneering initiative that will position Barcelona on the world map as a centre for technological innovation applied to sport”

A space for promoting and creating enterprises in the sport and technology sector 

The work to adapt the spaces that will house the incubator began in the summer and is scheduled to finish in March 2023. It consists of a 1,100 m2 space located in the former office area at the south side of the Stadium. It will also have a 400 m2 outdoor area, just in front of the former office space. 

The works, with a budget of €2.8 million, will provide the city with some unique, high quality facilities at what was once the epicentre of the sports universe for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. 

The new space will be specially adapted to host an entrepreneurial ecosystem closely linked to technology and sport. The incubator will have a large coworking area and 14 interconnected work modules. There will also be two meeting rooms and other communal spaces for use by the enterprises and entrepreneurs housed there. 

The incubator will have its own dedicated entrance and there will be parking spaces for cars, motorcycles and bicycles. All the rooms will have natural light, thanks to the opening-up of the façade, which will enable the interior and exterior of the incubator to be connected. 

The outside space will have a green area with urban furniture designed to encourage synergies between the different enterprises, enabling the organisation of meetings and co-creation activities outdoors. It will also have direct access to Montjuïc Park, one of the city's main green lungs, and also home to important sports institutions such as the National Physical Education Institute of Catalonia (INEFC), the Olympic Museum, the Palau Sant Jordi and the Picornell Swimming Pools, among others. 

The Olympic Ring offers a strategic environment linked to the practice of sport at a local, national and international level. The companies installed in the incubator will be able to learn and work alongside the sports events that take place at this privileged location. 

First step towards configuring the Barcelona Sports Hub

The Olympic Ring sport and technological project incubator will be the first facility to form part of the Barcelona Sports Hub. The Barcelona Sports Hub is a joint Barcelona Institute of Sports and Barcelona City Council initiative, which aims to provide support for sport as a key area for innovation and one of the city's emerging economic sectors.

The general aim of the project is to make Barcelona an international benchmark for the exchange of knowledge, talent, resources and innovation capacities in technology and sport. The Barcelona Sports Hub will be made up of big companies, institutions, start-ups and other technological stakeholders that develop projects to transform and improve the management and practice of sport, including projects related to eSports. With a total budget of €3 million, the hub will be maintained on a digital platform, although, in the future, it will have physical head offices at the Palau Municipal d’Esports.

In line with this new hub, Barcelona Activa and private collaborators from the sport and innovation sector will be promoting the B-Step programme, which is already under way, offering mentoring and support for start-ups and encouraging new projects to enter the city's sports ecosystem.
 

On Saturday, 5 November, the Tibidabo amusement park commemorates 20 years of its public ownership by Barcelona City Council and its 121st anniversary with a day of festive events for all the family

Under Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) management , Tibidabo has accomplished great things, such as opening the Panoramic Area up to the public, the introduction of a new roller coaster and the launch of the “Cuca de Llum” funicular railway 

The event will be attended by the City Councillor for Sarrià – Sant Gervasi and the Chair of Tibidabo Amusement Park, Albert Batlle

On Saturday, 5 November, the Tibidabo Amusement Park commemorates its 121st anniversary and 20 years of municipal ownership. The second Park Annual Festival will serve as a double celebration for Tibidabo, highlighting both Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) management for the past two decades and the 121-year history of the city’s most iconic park, and the second oldest in Europe, after Tívoli in Denmark.

The main aim of the festivities is to celebrate the historical ties that unite Barcelona and Tibidabo with the general public and to recall the great achievements of the past 20 years.

20 years of constant growth

Over the past two decades, thanks to the leadership of Barcelona City Council and the impetus of B:SM, the Tibidabo Amusement Park has improved in many aspects, always in accordance with the four key areas that guide the day-to-day running of the park: sustainability, education, experiences and solidarity. 

As a result, over these last two decades, Tibidabo has clearly shown the added value that public management can bring to an iconic infrastructure like this park. Apart from all the improvements on a tangible level, such as the new attractions, the modernisation of the spaces or innovations in services, public ownership, through B:SM, has made it possible to align the Park with Barcelona’s values and, at the same time, helped to integrate the Park into the everyday lives of our citizens, who see Tibidabo as just another part of the city in which they live.

In the areas of solidarity and education, the Park collaborates with many non-profit organisations (UNICEF, Vozes, Fundació RMyB, etc.) with the aim of making Tibidabo a place that is accessible to all. 2008 saw the launch of educational activities in the fields of science, technology and the environment, a project which offers groups of schoolchildren the opportunity to study complex concepts and to see their practical application aboard the park’s rides. This project received a boost in 2014 with the launch of the Fisidabo programme, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

In the field of sustainability, highlights includes the now 10-year-old commitment to promoting access to the summit of Collserola, transforming it into a pedestrian area and adding a shuttle bus service. This project culminated with the opening of “Cuca de Llum”, Tibidabo's new “glowworm” funicular railway, which has doubled capacity and cuts the journey time down to four minutes, making it an example of sustainable collective transport on a global scale.

Lastly, the stars of the experiences are the more than 600,000 people who visited the park this year, a figure that is close to the record numbers reached in the years before the pandemic. 

Guaranteeing an improved experience is a strategic line of action shared by B:SM and Tibidabo. Some examples include the launch of the Virtual Express (2017), the first park ride to feature virtual reality, and the future free fall which will be opening at the start of 2024.

A day filled with magic

The event to commemorate the 121st anniversary and 20 years of municipal ownership will take place on Saturday 5 November at the Tibidabo Amusement Park. It starts at 10 am and will be attended by the City Councillor for Sarrià – Sant Gervasi and the chair of the amusement park, Albert Batlle. Other guests will include former employees and the Tibiclub families. Throughout the morning, there will be a series of activities such as human castles, a batucada (drum performance), people in period costumes and a commemorative cake from the Escribà patisserie. 

The new B:SM Ciutadella del Coneixement car park, work on whose construction is to start towards the end of this year, will be the first originally conceived as a mobility services hub, not just at the service-offer level but also in architecture and image

The new model involves going beyond vehicle parking, redefining spaces and integrating new urban-mobility services and solutions, with users always at the centre

What's more, Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) will be studying the integration of new innovative services and solutions in the B:SM Plaça Navas car park, which is to become an urban-mobility laboratory in the coming year

B:SM Car Parks, the most extensive network of its kind in the city, with 45 car parks distributed throughout every neighbourhood and district, are making progress in their transformation as mobility service centres. Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) is promoting a gradual redefinition of its car parks to take a step forward towards a new concept of space that goes beyond vehicle parking. 

The development of this new car park model will range from reformulations of interior structures and layout to the types of services offered. It will ultimately enable the design of a new space that will put users at the centre and integrate new urban-mobility solutions and added-value services that respond to new habits and social needs: from electric-charging points and safe spaces for leaving bicycles to lockers for collecting e-commerce parcels. This new approach means car parks will need to be turned into friendlier and, above all, more functional environments for individuals accessing them not just by car or motorbike but also on foot. 

B:SM Car Parks will also continue to put digitalisation and new technologies at the service of city residents, improving user comfort and speeding up vehicle entrance and exit times. Processes such as payment through the SMOU app and 4G and 5G provision are already a reality. Work is now being carried out to extend other improvements to the entire network, such as automated access through number plate reading, already in operation for cars and motorbikes of car park subscribers, which will start being applied to all shorter-stay car park users. 

According to the Councillor for Mobility, Laia Bonet, “the change that B:SM car parks are undergoing shows the city’s aim to contribute to the new mobility challenges, habits and needs of Barcelona's residents, making the services more efficient, organised and healthy. Car parks in the cities of the future will play a key role in aspects such as freeing up public space and organising surface-level traffic. In addition, there will be nearby spaces for local residents to charge their electric vehicles or go and collect their online purchases. 

Ciutadella del Coneixement, the first B:SM car park to be built under these new criteria 

The transformation of B:SM Car Parks is now in progress. Building work is to start before the end of the year on the new B:SM Ciutadella del Coneixement car park, located on a plot of land bounded by C/ Wellington, C/ Villena, Ramon Trias Fargas and Av Icària, and which will be operational by the second quarter of 2025. 

Boasting an area of 7,000 m2 and a total budget of €10.7 million, it will be the first car park originally conceived as an authentic mobility hub, both in terms of the services it will offer and its architecture and image. At the construction level, this new conceptualisation involves a much more open definition of space, without columns, with flexible-use areas, and higher-ceilings that enable every type of vehicle to enter. 

As for the range of services on offer, as can now be seen in B:SM Car Parks, the mobility service hubs will have, in addition to parking places, safe spaces for parking bicycles and personal mobility vehicles, a larger number of electric-charging points from the Endolla Barcelona network and spaces reserved for shared car and motorcycle service operators. 

In addition, these new car parks will make a considerable contribution towards reducing cruising for parking and the pollutant emissions generated by the urban distribution of goods thanks to the installation of Click&Collect spaces, where citizens will be able to collect and return parcels 24 hours a day. They will also have micro-distribution points, that is, small storage spaces for operators to distribute goods to surrounding neighbourhoods using sustainable vehicles. 

This inter-modality coexists with the need to make car parks friendlier and more functional city environments. Which is why this change in physical layout and services will be accompanied by the launch of a new image, still in development, with lighting as its central feature. The new design will strengthen the sense of breadth and comfort, making stays in car parks much more pleasant. 

The new image of B:SM Car Parks will become progressively more visible from the coming year. The first to open will be the B:SM Litoral Port car park, in the summer of 2023; and the second, the B:SM Avinguda Gaudí, by the end of the coming year. 

Plaça Navas, a trends laboratory for integrating mobility services

While the new B:SM Ciutadella del Coneixement car park is being built, B:SM will be thoroughly integrating urban-mobility services into its car parks through renovation work on the B:SM Plaça Navas car park in the Poble-sec neighbourhood. From 2023 on, the space will become a flagship in preparation for the introduction of new mobility services in the rest of the B:SM Car Parks Network. 

Now at the development stage, the project is a further example of B:SM’s commitment to the continuous improvement of its activities and will enable new trends to be tested out in the area of mobility and the urban distribution of goods, including added-value services, before they are implemented.

To mark All Saints’ Day, the city’s cemeteries are extending their public help and information opening times, from 8 am to 5.30 pm, on 1 November

TMB will be providing extra bus services to and from Montjuïc and Collserola cemeteries

Cementiris de Barcelona is to extend its citizen help and information opening times on All Saints’ Day. Public help and information offices will be in service from 8 am to 5.30 pm on 1 November. Opening times on 29 and 30 October and on 5 and 6 November will be from 8.30 am to 2.30 pm. 

The cemeteries will be open during their usual hours, from 8 am to 6 pm. 

If you wish to avoid crowding and enjoy guaranteed privacy during your visits, Cementiris de Barcelona recommends you plan your visits in advance to check its maps and locator, which you will find available on its website, for your dearly departed. The public are also requested to stagger their visits and to visit in small groups. 

TMB will be providing extra bus services to the cemeteries  

TMB will also be providing extra bus services to and from Montjuïc and Collserola cemeteries. More specifically, public transport to Montjuïc cemetery will be stepped up with extra Line 21 (Paral·lel – Prat) services on 30 October and 1 November. There will also be extra Line 107 bus services, whose route enters the cemetery, from 24 October to 1 November. In addition, a special shuttle service will be available between Plaça d’ Espanya and Porta de Sant Lluís (entrance to the upper section of the cemetery) on 1 November. 

As for travel to and from Collserola Cemetery, there will extra services on Line 102 (Plaça d’Eivissa), from 24 October to 1 November, and on Line 104 (Fabra i Puig), on 29 and 30 October and on 1 November.

Flower-selling points

There will be points for purchasing natural flowers, located in Poblenou, Sant Andreu, Les Corts and Montjuic cemeteries from 8 am to 6 pm over the coming days:

• Poblenou: from 22 October to 6 November 
• Sant Andreu: from 29 October to 6 November
• Les Corts: 22 and 23 October (from 9 am to 5 pm), 29, 30 and 31 October and 1 November
• Montjuïc: from 29 to 31 October and 1 November

Mass at Poblenou Cemetery and at Sarrià Cemetery

Poblenou cemetery will be holding a mass for the departed, presided over by the Auxiliary Bishop, Monsignor Javier Vilanova, in memory of those who have died alone, on 1 November, at 12 noon. And a mass for the departed will be held in Sarrià cemetery at 12.30 noon. 

Night-time tour in Les Corts cemetery

A cultural activity at Les Corts cemetery, also held in previous years, is a dramatised night-time tour. Tours are being given this Thursday, 27 October, with a number of time slots, between 7 pm and 10 pm.

Lasting an hour and a quarter, the tours offer a unique opportunity to discover not just the family vaults of famous figures buried in Les Corts cemetery but also the night-time attractions of this site. The tours, which are candle lit, include live music. 

The tombs visited on the tours enable participants to connect with the history of the former village of Les Corts and to get to know the illustrious figures buried there, some of whom will be portrayed by actors, as is the case of Dr Pau Llorach, the comedian Joan Capri and the actress and film-director Elena Jordi. Other points of interest will also be visited, including the cemetery's Modernista-style chapel and Barcelona's oldest Jewish section.

Funeral Carriages Collection

The Funeral Carriages Collection at Montjuïc Cemetery will be open to the public from 10 am to 2 pm on 1 November, with a free guided tour available at 12 noon. A virtual tour guided by an animated character is also available. The link for accessing it is: https://www.cbsa.cat/visita-virtual-a-la-colleccio-de-carrosses-funebres/ 
 

Dealers of the German brand will be informing their Barcelona and Metropolitan Area customers of Endolla Barcelona’s electro-mobility network, how the regulated parking area works and B:SM’s Parking Network

The aim is to help with decision-taking and offer new tools and better information so that city residents can opt to buy electric vehicles, thereby contributing to the transition to a new, more sustainable mobility  

The Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) electromobility service, Endolla Barcelona, continues its work to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles. A collaboration agreement signed with Volkswagen will help to improve purchase experiences for individuals interested in an electric model. The alliance between B:SM and the Volkswagen brand will enable potential buyers to receive full information from dealers themselves on Endolla Barcelona’s network of charging point and other complementary services such as AREA regulated parking and the B:SM Parking network.

As a result of this public-private collaboration, city residents will have access to information such as the location of Endolla's on-street and car park-based charging points, the types of charging already available, how to sign up to Endolla services, the locations and types of AREA parking places and B:SM Parking rates. They will also find out where they can charge or park their vehicles, a big challenge in compact cities such as Barcelona where installing charging points connected to people's homes is complicated in some parts of the city . 

Information on Endolla Barcelona will be conveyed by Volkswagen's staff and available on a web page. Thanks to this digital environment, anyone interested in purchasing an electric vehicle will have access to a map showing both Endolla Barcelona’s on-street charging points and those in BSM car parks, and information on ways of signing up to Endolla’s services. Users will also be able to find out the cost of recharging their electric vehicle and the various rates for parking in car parks and on public roads. 

Barcelona, a leader in e-mobility in southern Europe, with Endolla

Boasting more than 650 charging points distributed with a high capillarity throughout the city, Endolla Barcelona is the Spanish State’s biggest public electro-mobility network. This network is continuing to grow, with some fifty new charging points to be launched between 2022 and 2023, with an investment of 600,000 euros. 

There are currently 6.5 points per km2 distributed throughout the city’s neighbourhoods, with one charging point for every 11.4 electric vehicles and a service availability of 97%. Added to all the other public charging points, these figures make Barcelona the second European city in terms of number of charging points per km2, after Stockholm, and fourth in number of points per resident, after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Oslo.

Given Endolla Barcelona's aim to contribute to a sustainable and efficient energy transition, 75% of its charging points are located in B:SM car parks, thereby freeing up public space and promoting planned off-peak, off-street charging and offering an efficient network to people without charging points at home or at their workplace. The remaining 25% of the points on the street are for fast charging, to promote occasional, unplanned and low-occupancy uses of public space.

Presented at Barcelona Zoo, the work offers an in-depth look at this Catalan scientist whose numerous notable contributions included his discovery of Floquet de Neu  

The first showing coincides with the centenary of the scientist’s birth  

The Turkana Films documentary was co-produced by RTVE, Televisió de Catalunya and La Xarxa and received support from the Catalan government's Ministry of Culture, the Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises and the Barcelona Zoo Foundation

Coinciding with the centenary of the birth of Catalan scientist and primatologist, Jordi Sabater i Pi, Barcelona Zoo hosted the presentation of Maa-yiem, l’extraordinària història de Jordi Sabater i Pi, a documentary that pays tribute to the man and offers an in-depth look at his legacy, which goes well beyond the discovery of Floquet de Neu. The presentation was attended by the Manager of the Area for the 2030 Agenda, Digital Transition and Sports and the Deputy Chair of the Barcelona Zoo Foundation, Xavier Paton; the documentary’s director, Alfons Par; primatologist and former student of Sabater Pi, Montserrat Colell; and Jordi Sabater i Pi’s son, Oriol Sabater Coca.  

This is a Turkana Films documentary co-produced by RTVE, Televisió de Catalunya and La Xarxa and backed by the Catalan government's Ministry of Culture, the Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises and the Barcelona Zoo Foundation. 

The documentary combines fiction with archive interviews and images and offers a detailed insight into Jordi Sabater i Pi, his passionate story and his legacy. 

A hundred years since the birth of Jordi Sabater i Pi  

Considered one of the world's leading scientists in the study of primates in their natural state and a discoverer of amphibian species and African birds, Jordi Sabater i Pi (1922 - 2009) was a pioneer in primatology in Catalonia and a key figure in ethnology. He was initially self-taught and he made the most of the time he spent in the former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea, from 1940 to 1969, to undertake his first research in the fields of anthropology and ethology. Work which, over time, led him to revolutionise the scientific world with various discoveries. 

Part of his research work was based on studying the cultural areas of chimpanzees, the discovery of a species of giant frog (Conraua goliath) in the Mbia River Falls and the identification of honeyguide birds (Melichneutes robustus), as well as the culture and language of the Fang people of Equatorial Guinea. Thanks to his observations of primates in the Okorobikó mountains in the 1960s, he discovered tool use and tool making abilities among this species.

Sabater i Pi received a number of international awards with the publication in 1969 of some of the conclusions of his studies in the magazine Nature.

In addition to these discoveries, however, it was his encounter with a small albino gorilla that made his name locally. It happened during his stay in Bata, in Equatorial Guinea, while he was conducting a study on the coastal gorilla population. Jordi Sabater i Pi called the little gorilla Floquet de Neu [Snow Flake] and had him sent to Barcelona Zoo. A discovery that quickly turned him into a symbol of the city. 

The travelling exhibition entitled ‘Climate change: how to avoid a global collapse’ addresses issues such as how the climate is evolving and the fragility of landscapes and life in certain parts of the planet  

The photography exhibition, which has already travelled to New York, Paris, Madrid, Granada and Valencia, is open to the public until the end of the year, in Park Güell's Plaça de la Natura

Until the end of the year, Park Güell will be hosting an exhibition entitled ‘Climate change: how to avoid a global collapse’. This is a travelling exhibition promoted by the Axa Foundation and the Planeta publishing house. Featuring large-scale photos, it looks at how the climate is evolving and the fragility of landscapes and life in certain parts of the planet. The exhibition highlights the need for a preventive policy to protect planet Earth, emphasising the importance of education in slowing down the environmental crisis. 

Curated by the naturalist Joaquin Araújo, the exhibition features some sixty photos by national and international authors enabling visitors to take a journey across the planet exploring the main weather phenomena affecting us and the impact that climate change is having. You will see diminishing glaciers, animal migrations, out-of-season flowering, sick forests and rising sea levels, among other things.      

The promoters of this exhibition, which has already been held in Madrid's Parque del Retiro, Granada's Alhambra, Valencia’s Jardins de Vivers, and in cities such as New York and Paris, chose Park Güell for its ties to nature and because it highlights the importance of prevention and fostering natural and heritage spaces. 

The exhibition is located in Park Güell's Plaça de la Natura and can be visited with a general admission ticket for the Park.  

The twentieth edition of this regatta, which brings together Barcelona and Formentera, will take place from 6 to 8 April next year 

Hosting the Ophiusa Regatta fits in with the Olympic Port’s ambition to promote recreational sailing, nautical training, and water sports 

For the second year running, the Olympic Port will be the starting point for the Ophiusa Regatta, which links the Catalan coast with the island of Formentera. What will be its twentieth edition will take place from 6 to 8 April next year, coinciding with Holy Week. The announcement was made in a presentation at the Olympic Sport’s stand at the Barcelona International Boat Show. 

As usual, depending on the number of boats registered, another start will be organised at Sa Ràpita Port, in Mallorca, with a different route and separate classifications. 

A total of 32 vessels registered last year, and the same numbers are expected this year. The Ophiusa Regatta mainly involves boats from the ports of the Maresme and Barcelonès counties. The whole regatta can be followed live by satellite. 

History of the Ophiusa Regatta 

The Ophiusa Regatta began in April 2004 in response to interest shown by many sailors in spending Holy Week in Formentera, to make the most of the quiet season. The first departure port was Aiguadolç-Port de Sitges, but since last year, the regatta has set out from Barcelona’s Olympic Port.  

‘Ophiusa’ is a Greek word meaning land of snakes, which is how the Greeks referred to the island of Formentera.  

The Olympic Port promotes amateur sailing 

Popularising and giving a boost to sailing is one of the strategic pillars of the new Olympic Port project, commissioned by Barcelona City Council and driven by Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM) since 2020. Hosting the Ophiusa Regatta therefore fits in with the new Olympic Port’s ambition to promote recreational sailing, nautical training and water sports. 

The Olympic Port’s transformation has begun and is making steady progress, with the 37th America’s Cup on the horizon. It will be held in Barcelona in 2024. Currently underway is the refurbishment of the premises that will house the city’s first blue economy centre. On top of that, September saw the start of development work on the Dic de Recer breakwater, which will become the new seafront promenade open to the public. This work is in addition to the construction of a new entrance, also underway, that will link the city with the port, and the new Gastronomic Balcony project, which will become a reality in the summer of 2024.  

The aim is to build an ecosystem of businesses and entrepreneurs capable of generating synergies with each other and with the rest of the city’s innovation and science community

The Olympic Port will specialise in four main sectors: recreational, educational, and informative sailing activities; sailing services; innovation, research and technology; and the circular economy 

Everything is ready for the city’s first blue economy hub to take shape. In early 2023, the Olympic Port will begin the process of selecting the businesses and entrepreneurs who will occupy the workspaces that have been under construction on the Moll de Mestral wharf and the Dic de Recer breakwater since September. 

The project was introduced this morning at the Boat Show, in a presentation involving key businesses in the blue ecosystem and Barcelona Activa, the local development agency leading the promotion and revitalisation of this economic sector in the city. 

The new offices are expected to be opened gradually between the summer of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. In all, there will be room for around 50 companies and entrepreneurs who will build an innovative environment that can attract talent, foster loyalty among the current sailing community at the Olympic Port, and create quality jobs. 

Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), the municipal company leading the transformation of the Olympic Port on behalf of Barcelona City Council, will select businesses in accordance with public procurement rules. More specifically, it will establish criteria for assigning premises, the minimum requirements interested organisations must fulfil, and deadlines for submitting bids. The process will place special emphasis on aspects such as, among others, the application of sustainability criteria to the business activity, links to the city’s business and science community, and involvement in revitalising the Olympic Port. 

According to the First Deputy Mayor and Chair of B:SM, Jaume Collboni, the Olympic Port ‘is starting to demonstrate the change in direction we began in 2020’, when the City Council took over management of the space. In just a few months, the Olympic Port will become a space for work and dynamism, from where we can show our potential as drivers of the blue sectors, a key area in terms of innovation, growth, and creation of quality jobs with the sea at the heart of things’. 

A blue economy hub specialising in four major sectors 

The Olympic Port’s blue economy will specialise in four major blue sectors: sailing activities; sailing services; innovation, research, and technology; and the circular economy. 
In particular, it will be home to businesses carrying out nautical activities of a recreational, educational or promotional character that are sustainable and respect the marine environment. There will also be companies that offer products and services relating to the sailing, maintenance, construction, sale, and design of boats, with priority given to those that encourage improved boat sustainability. 

Another strategic area will be made up of companies, start-ups, and entities that focus on innovation to create sustainable, smart services and products. It is hoped that this group will drive innovation, research, and technological development from the Olympic Port in collaboration with the city’s business, university, and technological communities. 

The Port also aspires to position itself as a leading space for the development of the circular economy, attracting businesses that produce or sell products and services made from recycled materials that come from marine ecosystems. 

The best place for developing and promoting the blue sectors 

The Olympic Port aims to be home to an innovative ecosystem of businesses and entrepreneurs capable of generating synergies with each other and with the rest of the city’s social, innovation, and science fabric.  To make this possible, collaboration agreements will be signed with universities, technology institutes, and other institutions that drive innovation and create opportunities. 

There will also be incentives to organise events, activities, and programmes that revitalise the Olympic Port’s ecosystem and have an impact on city residents. This task will be made easier by the new public spaces taking shape as part of the transformation and the creation of communal spaces, including an auditorium and a multi-purpose venue.