Pamplona may have its Running of the Bulls – but in the Catalonian city of Tarragona, they have the Stacking of the Humans.
Known as “castells”, the nail-biting human towers have been a tradition in the Spanish region of Catalonia since the 18th century, and every two years the best castellers converge on Tarragona to see which teams can stack themselves the highest.
11,000 spectators turned out to watch this year’s competition (pictured), which pitted 40 castell teams against each other and resulted in a victory for a team from Vilafranca, who took home 16,000 euros – or just north of $24,400 – for a tower that reached (ulp!) 10 tiers high, translating to around 13 metres.
Even more stomach-turning is the fact that, as the smallest and most nimble members of the team, forming the top of the tower is often a job for children.
“Without kids there would be no castells. They are the boys and girls who have to go up to the top, they have to coordinate the castells, and this is an essential part,” said Anna Jordand, a sports psychologist who also heads up a children’s squad.
They’d better hope nobody at the bottom sneezes…
