The competition between the educational centers will be next April 25. Preparatory workshops have been taking place since the beginning of the year.

 

Another year, and already 5 years ago, a new edition of JOVErd arrives, a project that was born in 2010 to bring the Castellers of Vilafranca closer together and open the doors of Cal Figarot to the young people of the town and the region. As in recent years, the JOVErd not only begins and ends with the competition between the educational centers that will be held at the social headquarters of the Greens next Saturday, April 25, but begins many weeks before with the workshops in each of the schools and institutes of Alt Penedès.

 

The workshops for the sixth edition of JOVErd already started weeks ago and are taking place in the physical education classes of 4th grade ESO or 1st year high school students. The people in charge of Castellers de Vilafranca give them the basic guidelines for the construction of the castells and it is the students themselves who have to form a castellar team for the competition on April 25, which is the culmination of the project. The leader of the group is usually the Physical Education teacher or a castellan student. The groups can involve students from other years and, in this way, it becomes a project for the whole school, with students of very different ages.

 

Year after year, JOVErd's success has been resounding. In each edition, the number of participants has grown noticeably and the pre-JOVErd atmosphere has been breathing on social networks for weeks. The students are already waiting for the appointment and some centers have even prepared motivational videos to encourage their classmates. In 2013, a participation of 600 students was reached, while last year the number was almost 900. As of today, the Castellers de Vilafranca still do not have expected participation figures, but so far 11 workshops have been held, which has brought the castells closer to more than 920 students throughout the region of Alt Penedès.

 

As already happened in the 2014 edition, this year the JOVErd poster design competition is also open so that the centers have the opportunity to win other prizes alongside the castellers proper. The educational centers will submit their designs next Monday, March 23, and a jury will assess all poster proposals. The winning poster will be the one Castellers de Vilafranca will use to promote the sixth edition of JOVErd.

 

 

With five editions of the JOVErd in their pockets and the sixth underway, the Castellers de Vilafranca value the experience of the project very positively, since in recent years the gang has experienced a remarkable increase in the entry of castellers and very young castelleras . In addition, year after year, the educational centers look forward to the initiative again, which becomes a fun, competitive day that allows interaction between the secondary education centers in the region.