MADRID (AP) — Gibraltarians gathered Wednesday for national day celebrations months before a fence separating the contested territory at the tip of the Iberian peninsula from Spain was expected to be dismantled.

It was the first such celebration since the European Union and the U.K. reached a deal in June to ease cross-border trade and travel in Gibraltar.

The festivities commemorate the 1967 referendum over the status of the Rock, as the territory is popularly called in English. Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the U.K., rather than to join Spain, which was ruled at the time by dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the celebrations this year “carry added significance.”

In June, the EU said that all physical barriers, checks

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