Festa de la Verge del Carme – Maritime Procession of Boats
Llançà honours its seafaring roots with the Festa de la Verge del Carme. After a solemn mass at the port chapel, the statue of the Virgin is carried out to sea in a procession of fishing boats and pleasure craft, with floral wreaths cast on the water in memory of those lost at sea. One of the Costa Brava's most heartfelt maritime traditions.
This is the fishing town's own day, run by the municipality and the fishermen's guild together, and it shows. The build-up across mid-July is properly local: greasy-pole games and cucanya contests down by the water, an evening of havaneres (the old sea shanties best heard with a glass in hand), and fireworks over the bay. There's a children's day too, and dancing into the night.
The heart of it falls on 16 July. After the mass, the Virgin is carried from the port chapel onto a fishing boat, and a flotilla of working craft and small pleasure boats follows her out across the harbour. A brass xaranga keeps the noise up from the deck, and wreaths go onto the water for those the sea has taken. Watch it from the quay, or talk your way aboard.
Source: https://patrimonifestiu.cultura.gencat.cat/Festa-del-Carme-Llanca