Giuseppe Gallo and Giacomo Giannotti of BCF

Formerly known as the Paradiso Sustainability Summit, Barcelona Cocktail Festival (BCF) marked its fifth anniversary with a rebrand that felt less like a name change and more like a genuine coming-of-age. Taking place on 18th and 19th April 2026 at Palo Alto in Poblenou, BCF was the brainchild of two people who, between them, seemed to have cornered the market on knowing what the bar world actually needed: Giacomo Giannotti, the Tuscan-born, Barcelona-based bartender behind Paradiso, currently ranked No.4 on The World's 50 Best Bars, and Giuseppe Gallo of ItalSpirits, whose fluency in brand building and hospitality marketing gave the whole enterprise its reach and polish.

Giacomo was, in many ways, the soul of BCF. He moved to Barcelona in 2012, cut his teeth at the Eclipse Bar at the W Hotel and the Ohla under Giuseppe Santamaria, and then in 2015 opened a speakeasy hidden behind a pastrami shop. That bar, Paradiso, went on to be named The World's Best Bar in 2022. Since then, he has opened Galileo, a cocktail bistro, and Monk, a hidden bar in Carrer Abaixadors, and taken the Paradiso name to Dubai and Ibiza. The festival, programmed by Giacomo in collaboration with The Sustainable Restaurant Association, carried the same restless, forward-looking energy as his bars.

The 2026 theme, "FutureProof: Reimagining the Industry for What Comes Next," shaped a genuinely thoughtful programme of talks ranging from the provocative to the practical. Saturday's panels were a particular highlight. The day opened with a conversation about Barcelona's bar scene, moderated by Giacomo himself, with panelists including Cesar Montillas of Dr Stravinsky and Theo Quinn of FOCO. A session on women shaping the industry brought together Antonella Nonino, Margarita Sader of Paradiso, Inés de Los Santos of CoChinChina and Julie Reiner of Milady's. Charlotte Voisey of Tales of the Cocktail then moderated a panel asking "Why the Bar Still Matters?", with Vijay Mudaliar of Native and Fabio Fanni of Locale Firenze among those making the case.

Beyond the panels, the SRA-shaped programme tackled questions rarely heard at drinks events: where cocktail emissions actually originated, what it meant to design with scarcity, whether AI could taste, and what drinking might look like in 2075. Whether or not guests left with answers, they left thinking.

The festival unfolded across the leafy creative hub of Palo Alto, a venue that suited it perfectly. Guests moved between tasting counters, brand showcases and masterclasses, with headline pop-ups from Himkok (Oslo), Native (Singapore), Alquimico (Cartagena), Roda Huset (Stockholm) and Angelita (Madrid), all with service curated by the Paradiso crew.

What Giacomo and Giuseppe built was something the bar world had been quietly asking for: an event that took sustainability and the future of hospitality seriously, opened its doors to consumers and locals without diluting industry value, and put Barcelona right at the centre of the conversation about what comes next.

Barcelona Cocktail Festival

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