Tarragona prepares for the total solar eclipse on August 12 at 20:29 hours, a phenomenon that in the city will have a duration of 61 seconds and that will not be repeated until the year 2180. The City Council has activated a specific program to turn the event into a great civic and tourist event.
The campaign, presented with the slogan 'Eclipse in Tarragona, a total experience', has an investment of 150,000 euros. The council proposes an agenda of activities linked to dissemination and leisure, with the aim of taking advantage of an exceptional date in the astronomical calendar.
Special programming in the city
The municipal proposal will include a planetarium, shows, workshops, and a website with scientific advice and civil protection recommendations to safely follow the eclipse. Also, the Eclipse Festival will be celebrated in Moll de Costa, one of the spaces called to concentrate a good part of the activity planned during that day.
The mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñales, has defended the scope of the initiative and has framed the event within the city's promotion strategy.
"A total eclipse deserves a total experience" - Rubén Viñales, mayor of Tarragona
The mayor has also underlined that this special program seeks to position Tarragona as a cultural and tourist destination, taking advantage of the uniqueness of an astronomical phenomenon that will have a prominent visibility from the city.
Mobility and security for a day of high influx
The City Council foresees deploying a mobility and security plan similar to the one applied during the Concurs de Castells de Focs. The forecast is to order displacements and manage the possible concentration of public in different observation points, especially in the areas with best visibility of the horizon.
The website enabled for the eclipse will incorporate, in addition to scientific information, practical recommendations for safe observation. Among them is the need to plan in advance the place from which the phenomenon will be followed.
How to choose the observation point
To locate a suitable site, it is recommended to use the 29th of this month at 8:21 PM to check the sun's position. That time reference will allow residents and visitors to verify if the chosen spot offers good visibility at the moment the total eclipse occurs.
The symbolic dimension of the event has also marked the presentation of the campaign. The science communicator Joan Anton Català has highlighted the extraordinary nature of the event and the collective impact it can generate in the public space.
"This is the phenomenon of nature" - Joan Anton Català, science communicator
"We will hug the person next to us" - Joan Anton Català, astrophysicist
With that horizon, Tarragona faces the countdown for an afternoon called to bring together science, dissemination and citizen celebration around a total eclipse that will barely last one minute, but that will be out of reach for several generations.