Festa Major de Sant Just
The party ends. The image stays.
The brief
The Festa Major of Sant Just Desvern isn’t one event: it’s dozens. The opening speech, gegants, sardanas, havaneres, correfoc, fireworks, concerts until the small hours, the elders’ afternoon tea, a zip line for the kids and football matches in full sun. Back to back, across different days and different corners of town.
The council needed it properly documented. Not one token photo per event: full coverage, material usable the same day for press and social, and an archive that holds up over the years. We’ve done it for several editions now.
What we did
We planned the coverage around the programme. Before touching a camera: which events, at what time, where, and which ones can’t be missed. Routes between stages, light hours and priorities, so no event goes unphotographed because of a clash in the schedule.
We shot the whole festival. From the opening speech to the last concert: gegants and colles, sardanas, havaneres, correfoc, fireworks, the kids’ disco, the zip line, football, the elders’ tea, the literary walk and the late-night parties. Wide for the crowd, long for the face, and always looking for the people before the stage.
We edited and delivered event by event. Selection, developing and retouching with consistent colour across the whole Festa Major, and delivery organised by event, so the comms team can find any photo without opening three thousand files.
Material built to be published. Framing that works horizontally for the website and the press, with enough room to crop vertically for stories. No choosing between archiving and publishing.
Day, night, from the inside.
At a Festa Major the good photo is almost never on stage: it’s three rows back, on the face of someone who’s been waiting for this all year. We cover the programme, but we photograph the town.
How you cover a whole festival
The main tool isn’t the camera: it’s the festival programme with annotations. Which events overlap, how long it takes to get from the square to the football pitch, what can be photographed in five minutes and what asks you to stay (the correfoc fire run, the fireworks, the seniors’ afternoon snack). Out of that comes a route for each day, with priorities, so no event ends up without a photo because of the schedule.
Then, two lenses and one criterion. Wide angle for the crowd, telephoto for the face, always looking for the town before the stage. And at the end of the day, the part nobody sees: selection, grading with one consistent colour across the whole festival and folders by event, so Communications can find the photo of the opening speech without opening three thousand files. Several editions in a row make that system better every year.
How it went
Gallery · the project in pictures (click to enlarge)
By day, the square sets the pace.
Full daylight and wide frames to set each event: the opening address, the gegants with their colles and the sardanes. And one detail at ground level that tells the day better than any speech.
As the sun drops, the party moves.
The golden light of late afternoon: habaneras with the whole town seated in front, the lawn at Can Freixes and the tea-time dance. The coverage follows the party wherever it is, not only on the main stage.
At night, fire and music.
Correfoc, concerts and the whole town under the lights. The edit keeps each setting’s colour, from the red of the sparks to the blue of the stage, so the night looks the way it felt.
More images from the project 13 ↗
"We cover the programme. But what gets photographed is the town."The rule behind the coverage
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