Sun still shining on Catalonia's Sant Jordi book-giving festival

Only rain could ruin Diada de Sant Jordi (St George's Day). Otherwise, it does not matter if it falls on a Saturday or, even worse, in the middle of Easter, as it did this year. The most popular festive event in Catalonia once again proved its power to move the masses, in Barcelona and elsewhere in the region, where tens of thousands of people observed the tradition of exchanging roses and books.

The forecast had been so bad for this year in the capital that the booksellers' collective joy was infinite when crowds started to form around their stands. "This is the best Sant Jordi of my life," said the writer Almudena Grandes. The downtown area of La Rambla and Plaza de Catalunya was packed tight, as were Portal de l'Àngel and Rambla de Catalunya.

Beside the fact that it did not rain, success was also determined by the heavy influx of international tourists and from other parts of Spain. Perhaps as a result of the national economic crisis, 30 percent fewer local residents left the city on Easter holidays this year, leaving them free to attend Sant Jordi.

The forecasts did succeed in guessing who the bestselling authors would be this year: In fiction, Albert Espinosa topped the charts with Si tú me dices ven lo dejo todo... pero dime ven, followed by Javier Marías with Los enamoramientos and Ramon Solsona with L'home de la maleta. In non-fiction, the bestselling book was the 93-year-old Stéphane Hessel's political essay Time for Outrage!, followed by the popular science writer Eduard Punset's Excusas para no pensar.

While awaiting final region-wide figures, booksellers and distributors said they expected to equal last year's sales of 19 million euros. It was a different story for rose sellers, who seemed to do much worse, partly due to the fact that there were fewer sales stands this year, and partly because of price tags of more than three euros.