Sitges Corpus 2026 puts bonsai on the opening-day arts program

Bonsai will step onto Sitges’ main civic stage on Friday, June 5, when the Corpus 2026 program opens the Bonsai Exhibition at Centre Cultural Miramar at the same time the 86th National Carnation Show begins in the gardens of Hospital de Sant Joan Baptista.

That pairing matters. Corpus in Sitges is not a side festival or a private club calendar, but one of the town’s biggest annual cultural celebrations, built around flowers, street decoration, processions and public participation. The 2026 program, designed and prepared by Anna Sanchez, runs from June 5 through June 14 and places bonsai among the opening-day attractions rather than off in a separate niche corner.

The scale of the festival gives that placement real weight. Official Corpus materials say Sitges is preparing 30 flower carpets using 370,000 carnations with the help of 1,200 people. The main flower-carpet day is Sunday, June 7, when the town’s streets fill with the overnight work of residents and organisations. The Corpus Christi procession follows that same communal logic, led by children who have celebrated their First Communion and joined by giants, bands and traditional figures. Sitges Tourism says the celebration is declared a Festival of National Heritage Interest, which helps explain why a bonsai display inside the same program reads as more than a decorative add-on.

Corpus de Sitges describes the festival as a participatory event built on four main elements: the flower carpets, the carnation exhibition, the balcony-and-façade contest, and the bonsai display. For bonsai, that is a meaningful status upgrade. The art form is being placed alongside the town’s signature floral traditions, not treated as an isolated hobby exhibition.

The bonsai show itself has deep Corpus roots. The first exhibition was held in 1991 during Corpus week at the old Cafè del Retiro, after participants had learned cultivation techniques at Hort de Can Falç with guidance from Josep López and Josep Milà. Since then, the show has moved through Hort de Can Falç, the Patronat and El Retiro, and since 2013 it has been staged in the auditorium of the Edifici Miramar. Today it is presented by the Amics del Bonsai del Garraf, and recent editions have also added suisekis to the display.

For 2026, bonsai is not arriving as a novelty. It is arriving as part of Corpus itself, opening on the same day as Sitges’ flower shows and settling into a festival that has spent 35 years making room for living art.