🍫 🏰 🎵 Apr 3 Weekend: Chocolate Egg Workshops, Baby Mozart, and a Renaissance Fair in a Real Castle

Bon dia, Barcelona!

School is out and chocolate is in. We hope you are enjoying (surviving?) Semana Santa with your family. Head to the Chocolate Museum for an Easter egg workshop or enjoy the sunshine with a road trip to Hostalric or Garriguella for great food and a real-life castle!

Happy Easter, everyone!

— Ben & Rahim

Forget plastic eggs full of cheap candy: this Easter, kids get to make the real thing. At the Museu de la Xocolata, they'll craft their own Easter eggs, lollipops, and cookies from scratch, learning actual chocolate-making skills in the process. Messy, delicious, and genuinely memorable.

An hour north of Barcelona, the castle town of Hostalric turns back the clock 600 years: knights, craftspeople, period markets, and the kind of atmosphere that makes kids believe, just for an afternoon, that dragons are real. Free entry, all ages, and one of the most cinematic day trips you can do from the city.

Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms walked into a concert hall, and this time, babies are invited. This fast-paced acoustic show reimagines classical masterpieces for the very youngest listeners, in one of the most spectacular concert halls in the world. Genuinely one of the most special things you can do with a small child in Barcelona.

For €2, your kids get to get absolutely filthy while learning how ceramics shaped the entire course of human civilization. This Sunday, they'll mold clay just like ancient farmers did, and come home with muddy hands and a surprisingly good story to tell at school next week.

A drive north rewards you with brunyols (think Catalan donuts), glasses of local garnatxa wine, and an artisan market in a tiny Alt Empordà village that feels about as far from the city as you can get without leaving Catalonia.

Apr 2-6, 11-12. San Miguel Biergarten at Poble Espanyol (Montjuïc). Grab your family for Barcelona's biggest beer festival at Poble Espanyol, where 20+ craft beers, German food, live music, and a yodeling contest await you. Free Entry. Thursday, Apr 2 from 6:00pm-1:30am, Friday-Wed, Apr 3-6 from 12:30pm-1:30am, Apr 11 from 12:30pm-1:30am and Apr 12 from 6:00pm-10:00pm.

Apr 10, 16, 17, 24. Maña at Centres Cívics de Barcelona (Various). Watch a circus artist choreograph the construction of a massive box structure using ancient tools and pure ingenuity, turning craftsmanship into mesmerizing performance art. Free, with prior reservation. Ages: 9+. Friday, Apr 10 at 6pm (Add to Calendar), Thursday, Apr 16 at 6pm (Add to Calendar), Friday, Apr 17 at 7pm (Add to Calendar) and 1 more.

Apr 11-12. Paint Music at Teatre Goya (Ciutat Vella). Babies and grown-ups paint together while three musicians, actors, and singers guide you through the seasons, creating your own version of Miró's The Birth of the Day. 10€. Ages: 0-5. Saturday, Apr 11 at 11am (Add to Calendar), Sunday, Apr 12 at 11am (Add to Calendar).

Apr 24-25. Ether (Silver Drops Dance) at various locations. Float through dreamlike landscapes with Silver Drops Dansa's mesmerizing dance show. Free with prior reservation. Ages: 2+. Friday, Apr 24 at 6pm (Add to Calendar), Saturday, Apr 25 at 6pm (Add to Calendar).

Apr 25, May 1. Cinderella, the 50s-style musical! at SAT! Sant Andreu Teatre (Sant Andreu). A groovy 50s take on Cinderella where a baseball player chases his dream girl and a scholarship, proving that determination and kindness beat stepmother drama every time. 10.50€. Ages: 3+. Saturday, Apr 25 (Add to Calendar), Friday, May 1 (Add to Calendar).

The Rabbit Hole

Barcelona has a secret pool. Not a rooftop bar with a waiting list, just a real, full-size public swimming pool at the bottom of an old quarry, built for the 1992 Olympics and almost entirely forgotten by anyone outside Gràcia. Parc de la Creueta del Coll sits carved into the hillside like a hidden amphitheater, raw rock walls towering above you on all sides. Hanging over the water by steel cables is a 50-ton concrete sculpture by Eduardo Chillida, called "In Praise of Water," that looks, with great intention, like it is about to drop. In summer the pool opens and locals claim it like a neighbourhood secret. In winter it drains, but the park remains: newly rebuilt playground, zero tourists, and a quarry atmosphere that makes you feel like you've stumbled somewhere you weren't supposed to find. 15 minutes uphill from Lesseps metro. Don't tell everyone.

Made with ❤️ by Ben & Rahim. Two San Francisco dads living in BCN. We scout the city for the best cultural events, workshops, festivals, and hidden spots so you don't have to. Less planning, more playing. See you in the park or in your inbox every Thursday.