Girona has tightened the system for allocating spaces in La Devesa for the Fires with new rules that will regulate the 2026-2028 period. The City Council maintains the tender to distribute plots between attractions and stalls, but redefines the authorization framework with more controls, more prior documentation, and more limits to access a space.
The change follows the line that the municipal government had already advanced last year. Furthermore, in 2025 the management of the attractions and stalls of La Devesa will pass from the Culture area to that of Economic Promotion, within a reorganization with which the city council wants to reinforce the supervision of this area.
Permissions more linked to the holder and to the specific installation
One of the main novelties is that the authorization remains more linked to the applicant and to the specific installation with which they participate. The new bases state that the permit is granted taking into account at the same time the holder and the stall or attraction presented, with the aim of avoiding subsequent unauthorized changes.
"We want to strengthen control mechanisms" - Gemma Geis, deputy mayor and councilor
The municipal executive maintains that with this model it is intended to prevent an attraction different from the one previously authorized from ending up being set up. Along the same lines, the rules prohibit assigning, transferring, or leasing the authorizations between private parties, except for very specific exceptional cases provided for in the text itself.
New framework for three consecutive annuities
Also changes the duration of the authorization system. The new bases directly regulate the annuities 2026 2028, while the framework in force until now, approved in 2022, contemplated one-year permits extendable up to three more annuities, with a total maximum of four years.
The new wording makes it clear that these authorizations do not generate any acquired right of continuity beyond what the bases themselves establish. In this way, the council sets a closed system for the next three exercises and defines with more precision the scope of the permit.
More control over vacancies, reservations and limits per person
The text regulates in greater detail the management of vacancies and substitutions. Compared to the previous model, which left more margin in the management of free spaces and reservations, now it is specified more precisely how the waiting list will work, how vacancies will be covered, and what limitations will be applied per person.
The rules also veto the so-called artificial fractionation, defined as the formal division of applications among different holders to circumvent the fixed limits. With this, the City Council seeks to order the procedure from the submission of applications until the coverage of plots that may remain unawarded.
New social, environmental, and safety criteria
The valuation system maintains part of the logic of the 2022 2025 bases, which prioritized aspects such as the modernity of the installation, investments in structure and security, cleaning and painting expenses, energy saving measures, novelty and aesthetic values. New criteria are now incorporated into that scheme.
Among them are the carbon footprint and a social criterion linked to self-employment and to seniority in fair or recreational activity. The document also develops in more detail issues related to safety and with the food offer adapted to allergies and intolerances.
"Attractions must be a playful space and with the maximum safety guarantees" - Gemma Geis, deputy mayor and councilwoman
More documentation from the beginning of the process
Another of the relevant changes affects the required documentation. The new rules tighten the requirements from the very beginning and oblige to accredit the availability of the installation, in addition to presenting the technical documentation and the insurance policies along with the application itself.
In cases of activities with habitual contact with minors, the negative certificate of sexual offenses will also be required. With this new framework, Girona maintains the tender system for the Fires de la Devesa, but does so with a more developed procedure and with stricter control over who can occupy each space and under what conditions.