A very simple ceremony is planned to be held in Barcelona on the first anniversary of the attacks on 17th August last year, centred on the victims and their families. It will start at 10:30am in plaça de Catalunya, a large square in the centre of Barcelona next to the site of one of the attacks. The motto will be Barcelona, Ciutat de Pau ("Barcelona, city of peace"). It will feature a musical performance and the reading of a text in remembrance of the victims. No official speeches are expected.
The event is being organised by Barcelona city council with the collaboration of the Catalan government and the Spanish government's delegation to Catalonia. It will be attended by representatives of Ripoll, Cambrils, Alcanar and Subirats, towns all linked to the plotters, as well as representatives of the towns where those who died lived and members of the emergency services.
Barcelona city council emphasises that they want the focus of the commemoration to be on the families of the victims of the attacks. For that reason they're planning a simple, emotional ceremony with music as the common thread, thanks to the participation of the city's five municipal music schools and the town conservatoire.
Presented by the journalist Gemma Nierga, the ceremony will start with El cant dels ocells. The song will be followed by the reading of a text in the seven languages of those who died in the attack (Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Italian and German) by those who took part in last August's inter-faith ceremony in condemnation of the attack.
Before the ceremony, there will be a laying of floral offerings at the Joan Miró mosaic on the Rambla. The Rambla, a large boulevard popular with tourists running off plaça de Catalunya, was the site of the attack in Barcelona, which ended at the mosaic.
The city council is planning to install a memorial to the victims and the solidarity of the public as part of wider reforms to the Rambla planned for next year.