The first third of the twentieth century represented the golden of the Feast of Sant Roc de la Plaça Nova. In 1903 the Feast Committee is renewed with the incorporation of young artisans belonging to the common neighborhood lineages and of new neighbors, political leaders and intellectuals of the moment and youth with artistic pretensions, which give a twist to the celebration and that, without altering the popular spirit of its essence, enriched them with a new air of catalanism and modernism.
The Feast Committee adds new activities to the feast according to the tastes of the time: Sardanes, traditional dances, giants and "big-heads", a new greasy pole, Japanese balloons and fireworks, concerts and dances in fashion and the poster of the feast. This poster, unique and original in every edition, was conceived by the local artist Antoni de Paula Rigau. He created fifty six, between 1907 and 1972, and each is a work of art and a chronicle of the time. They became a real attraction of the feast that the whole city expected.
In 1903, the Feast Committee decided to draw up a new flag of the neighborhood. It is known as the Green Flag, due to the color of its silk fabric and for the golden fringes and staffs. Since then the Green Flag marched in the entourage of the saint alongside the flags of the Porters Guild and of the City.
In 1904 Francesc Llorens, carpenter and antiquarian of the street del Bou de la Plaça Nova and member of the Feast Committee, built a new greasy pole for the festivities. This greasy pole, which currently is still in use, is unique both due to its green color and shape -two poles planted in the ground with a third greased and rotating- as for the game itself, simply called "Cucanya de la Plaça Nova". The greasy pole has become a ritual and the main attraction for the neighborhood's children for generations.
In 1906 the Feast Committee commissioned a pair of giants to El Arte Cristiano of Olot. The giants of Sant Roc de la Plaça Nova were the first Barcelona giants property of the residents of a neighborhood in Barcelona, and have been active continuously. Alongside the giants a couple of "big-heads" were bought, known as Tano and Beco, which disappeared in 1963. In 1907 they added a third dwarf, Cu-cut, a character of the satirical magazine of the same name, very popular at the time. In 1909 the tradition of another element that became essential to the celebrations of the first third of the twentieth century was born, and still endures today, the "Gran Globus del Capità Munyon".
The Feast of Sant Roc enjoyed great prestige and attention, especially in the thirties, and this was noted in the city's press. However, they suffered the convulsive circumstances of the moment. The City Council, which in 1909 lost the custom of complying with the city vow, suspended in 1923 the grant to the Feast Committee of Sant Roc. The dictatorships of generals Primo de Rivera and Berenguer almost made the celebrations come to a halt, which did not recover its brighness until the Second Republic.
