La Rambla will be excluded from the Sant Jordi celebration of 2026 due to the transformation works of the promenade, which will force the relocation of its stalls to Portal de l"Àngel, Plaça Nova and Plaça de la Catedral. The municipal device will also maintain book and rose stalls in 12 spaces distributed across seven districts of Barcelona.
The reorganization will arrive in an edition that will once again have a strong deployment in the street. It is expected that there will be more than 6,000 points of sale for books and roses, 2% more than the previous year, with a distribution adapted to the absence of one of the traditional axes of the Diada in the city center.
Relocation of stops in Ciutat Vella
The stalls that were usually installed on La Rambla will move to occupy other spaces in the immediate vicinity of the historic center. Specifically, they will be located in Portal de l"Àngel, Plaça Nova and Plaça de la Catedral, while the rest of the device will extend to other points of the Catalan capital.
The change fully affects the floral sector. The Gremi de Floristes has asked the Ajuntament de Barcelona to review the licensing system for rose stalls, in a context where private stalls already exceed 70% of the total number of stands.
"Not having La Rambla is killing us and what could be done has been done" - Joan Guillén, president of the Gremi de Floristes
The same sector representative has warned of the space limitations in the new distribution planned for 2026.
"Not everyone fits and we have distributed them in the transversal streets, in Gran de Gràcia and in the new spaces of Ciutat Vella" - Joan Guillén, president of the Gremi de Floristes
Police control and mobility restrictions
The Guàrdia Urbana will deploy 227 agents and 207 assistants from private companies during the Sant Jordi day. To that operation will be added a specific surveillance against unlicensed street vending, with between three and four patrols in the morning and the same number in the afternoon to detect irregular stalls and confiscate products.
The new civility ordinance sets at 360 euros the fines for street vending without a license. The objective of the device will be to especially control the points with the highest concentration of pedestrians and commercial activity.
In the literary super-block, the passage of motorized vehicles, bicycles, and scooters will be prohibited. Also, the Aerobús stop at Plaça de Catalunya will be canceled during the day.
The economic weight of the Diada for the floral sector
Diada de Sant Jordi continues to be a decisive date for florists. It represents between 10% and 15% of their annual sales. In parallel, of the 7 million roses that wholesalers put on the market for the festivity, 7 out of every 10 are sold by individuals, a proportion that explains part of the discomfort expressed by the professional sector.
The 2026 edition thus faces a double reality in Barcelona, with more points of sale and a reinforcement of municipal control, but also with a forced redistribution in the center due to the absence of La Rambla, one of the most recognizable settings of the day.