Fallas is everything…

Fallas is everything that Valencia is, and Valencia is everything that Fallas is.

It’s noisy, brash, busy, colourful, joyous and emotional. It’s surprising, accessible, inclusive, gregarious and diverse. It’s traditional, historic, culturally important and of great regional and national significance.

It’s fireworks and fire. It’s madness, drinking, dancing and street food. It’s artistry, music, song and satire. It’s religion, respect and remembrance alongside a cultural riot.

 

And finally, FINALLY, we’ve been lucky enough to experience it.

 

It’s a little over 8 years since we bought the Valencia apartment, and several more years since my first visit to the city. Over all those years, we’ve managed by one means or another, to miss Valencia’s spectacular weeks-long lead up to Día del Padre (St. Joseph’s day) on 19^th March.

 

Las Fallas de Valencia (Falles in Valenciano) is an annual celebration commemorating St. Joseph. The main days of celebration are 15^th-19^th March, but many features of Fallas will run from late February¹. The festival is recognised by UNESCO on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

But enough Wikipedia. Here’s a look at our experience, and the most memorable parts of our sensory overload:

 

FIREWORKS:

 

Fireworks have to top this list. Fireworks are very much a Valencian thing most of the time, but it’s x1000 for Fallas. They are the one ubiquitous feature of Fallas that you couldn’t fail to be aware of.

From the tiny petardos that little kids love to throw in the street to the huge explosives in the daily mascletà that bounce your internal organs, firecrackers and fireworks are everywhere in Fallas. Literally 24/7. 

 

Parents buy kids wooden boxes full of firecrackers and fireworks, and the delighted kids decorate the boxes with their names. Those same parents look on lovingly (and actively encourage) as their pequeños turn to explosives for their entertainment for a few deafening Fallas days. Every street is alive with explosions, and littered with the debris of thousands of firecrackers. The bigger the kid, the bigger the noise.

 

But none can compete with the Mascletà. Every day at 2pm, from 1^st-19^th March, this daytime firework display attracts thousands of spectators to Plaza Ayuntamiento. 

 

On the 18^th, there were huge crowds, but we managed to get within around 100 metres of the fenced-off mascletà area in front of the town hall. The crowds grew and grew, and so with 20 minutes to go we were all crammed in, with no choice but to wait it out in the sunshine.

 

The creu roja attended to several people in the crush. Guests of the Ayuntamiento showed ID to the police and walked down to the town hall. The attending Falleras (more on these later) walked towards us in pairs up Calle de la Sangre and turned neatly to enter the back of the town hall and take up their privileged position on the balcony. The best seat in the city.

 

The anticipation grew, police helicopters circled, and a loud airborne explosion gave the 10 minute warning to the crowd’s delight… another with 5 minutes to go. The clock edged towards 2pm, and we stared intently past the Ayuntamiento and towards the spectacular Edificio de Correos as the crowd whistled its impatience, waiting for the assault on our senses.

 

It is not possible to explain how incredible a good mascletà is to anyone who hasn’t had the experience, particularly those in countries like the the UK who are understandably unable to grasp the concept of a daytime firework display. At 2pm², the Fallera Mayor on the town hall balcony will announce (in Valenciano of course): “Senyor pirotècnic, pot començar la mascletà!” and this amazing spectacle rumbles into life. The skill of the pirotècnic (and the good ones are genuine heroes) is immediately obvious, as the noise and colour build, the lights of fireworks dance and collide, smoke changes through a spectrum of colours and billows over the thousands of spectators.

Explosive noise takes over as the display develops, increasing in intensity until you can feel the physical force of it. You don’t believe that this can get any louder or more intense… this must be the big finish… until it reaches another level. The crowd reaction is the same as that most amazing gig you ever saw… people scream, arms raised, fingers pointing skywards as if to reach out to the circling drones and police helicopters.

 

The final shattering explosion echoes around the soaring buildings of Plaza Ayuntamiento³, and even the screams of the thousands fail to fill the void that it leaves. This is one of those occasions where nobody moves for a little while. Open-mouthed, looking at strangers, processing the amazing assault on the senses.

 

NOISE:

 

All of which brings me on nicely to noise. Valencia is a noisy city all of the time. Valencianos can be noisy most of the time, although this rarely comes across as boorish or annoying, more as excited, engaging, energetic. During Fallas, this takes on new meaning. Those who dislike Fallas⁴ will leave the city for the duration. This leaves only a) excited Valencians and b) excited visitors. Now every aspect of your Fallas life will be accompanied by these fellow celebrants and their drinking, eating, screaming, laughing, crying, fire-cracker throwing cacophony.

Temporary street bars on every corner (not enough cafés, bars and shops for all these thousands) give the green light to all-day street drinking… unusual in Valencia. Street stalls sell buñuelos de calabaza and churros con chocolate as fast as they can be made. It’s a heady mix, and a noisy one. Your average fire-cracker gets louder as the Fallas climax approaches. Our relatively quiet barrio is no exception, and the local casal faller (and all the others) extends their premises via a large marquee and a stage on closed streets, so that all the fire-crackers can be accompanied by music, singers, live bands and speeches on the final night. They’ll have their own small mascletà. A live band until 4am on one late-Fallas evening passed without comment or complaint, even with a large proportion of older residents in the surrounding apartment buildings.

 

Then there’s the despertà. You’re going to get a firecracker and marching band wake-up call at 8am. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. Yes, I know the band didn’t finish until 4am. This is Fallas, right?

 

An incredible castillo de fuegos begins at midnight on every evening of the main celebration. A night-time firework display more familiar to many of us, although executed with such spectacular skill to rival any in the world. In the aftermath of this, smaller local displays will go on through the night.

 

If you are looking for sound, extended sleep across mid-March for any reason, Valencia is not the place to be.

 

 

FALLES (AND NINOTS):

 

Every neighbourhood in Valencia (almost every street if truth be told) has a Casal Faller. This is much more than just the name of the place where they meet, but an organized, close, work hard/play hard community group who meet, eat, drink and fundraise all year, dedicated to the production of their Falles.

 

With 2 such organisations very close to the apartment, we were a little torn over where to place our allegiance, albeit a passive allegiance at the moment. It soon became evident that some of our close neighbours were active in Falla Camino Barcelona⁵. One neighbour unexpectedly burst into the lift one day in full fallera outfit, the wide skirts filling the small lift with their finery. Having had one or two rather intimidating encounters with this particular vecina (usually in normal clothes with small dog) we decided Falla Camino Barcelona was deserving of our allegiance for fear of incurring her wrath. I suspect her wrath is not a wrath to be incurred under any circumstances.

 

The falles are the enormously impressive constructions that each casal faller works all year to produce with the help of specialised artists. There are around 400 city-wide, each accompanied by falles infantils, or a smaller children's version. The individual ninots are the figures which make up the whole construction, and the falles are often huge, spectacular works of art.

 

For fear of delivering a history lesson, I’ll keep the evolution brief. In the dark winter days of the past, carpenters would fix up contraptions for mounting candles to allow them to work. When the lighter days of spring arrived, these contraptions would be ritually burnt. As these contraptions became more elaborate and were decorated, the process evolved into the building of the astonishing falles that we see today. They are used as platforms for satire and social and political comment, satisfying the Valencian love of poking fun at people in power and the situations they might create.

 

We walked past Estació del Nord and down Carrer de Bailèn one day, passing stall after stall selling the pañuelos that celebrants wear around their necks... churros, buñuelos, hats, trinkets, toys. There are huge crowds, chinese and south american restaurants and grocers. 

As we walked, newly arrived visitors from the station were lifted 2-3 inches off the ground by a volley of firecrackers, along with their wheely suitcases. 

 

We turned the corner, crossed a city block or two, and stood in front of Falla Convent de Jerusalem. This is a vibrant, multi-cultural part of town with a great atmosphere during the festival, and this falla has been a regular winner across the years. This year’s edition was an incredible, towering work of art. A little depiction of Carles Puigdemont at the base of the falla stood out despite its deliberately tiny stature. A little stab at his Catalan separatist movement, with Puigdemont depicted as a Roman soldier, his Catalan flag as his shield.

 

Then on the evening of 19^th March, they burn them all⁶.

 

To the casual observer, the burning of the falles on 19^th March seems like an act of criminal damage. In reality, it’s the climax of months of preparation and days of celebration. It’s emotional, but not sad. It’s a great honour for the casal faller and everyone who has worked so hard to make the whole thing happen.

 

We waited dutifully outside Bar Caramel, at the chilly, breezy corner of Avenida Portugal and Avenida Constitución on the evening of the 19^th. 8pm is the designated hour for the burning of the falles infantils, the start of La Cremà.

Despite a gathering local crowd, 8pm came and went. Bar Caramel was doing a roaring trade in tins of Mahou, but there was little sign of activity around the falla infantil. Eventually, a string of firecrackers was attached to a nearby tree. Everyone from the casal faller had their photos taken in front of the falla infantil. A flammable liquid was added in various places, adjustments were made, and everything seemed in readiness. But it wasn’t. Yet. Patience, Inglés.

 

Finally, at an acceptably late 8.40pm, the first firecracker on the string leading from the nearby tree was lit. Quickly, one by one, the small explosions neared the falla infantil, the firecrackers wrapped around it went off, and the whole thing went up quickly. Fireworks placed inside the falla shot into the air⁷, a huge cloud of smoke pushed out towards the crowd, and everyone was delighted with the spectacle. La Cremà for Falla Camino Barcelona was underway, with the much larger falla due to meet it’s explosive fate at 10pm, along with all of the others across the city.

 

 

LAS FALLERAS:

 

So here are the stars of the show. The spirit of Falles. Your carnival queens x 1000. Each casal faller will elect its Fallera (and Fallera Infantil) to represent it to the city and the celebration. This is a huge honour. Falleras then go on to a selection process for wider representation, and ultimately the Fallera Mayor (along with her Corte de Honor) and Fallera Mayor Infantil will be selected to represent all the other Falleras, and to lead the city’s celebrations and undertake many civic duties. There is a great deal of cultural and emotional significance attached to this.

 

Falleras appear everywhere during Falles, performing their ceremonial duties and walking, dancing and smiling their way through their ofrenda, a long procession culminating in a gift of flowers to La Virgen. The construction of an enormous statue of La Virgen covered in flowers is the result, and Plaza de la Virgen is complete with this enormous idol and the extraordinary floral offerings of every casal faller around the Neptune fountain on the 19^th.

The traditional outfit of the Fallera is unmistakable. With hair styled styled in an elaborate and specific way, partly covered with a lace mantilla falling to the astonishingly elaborate silk dresses. The outfit is based on 18^th and 19^th century clothing worn by the huertanos working in the fields and orchards of Valencia.

 

The dress itself is iconic, and Falleras and their families prize this highly, along with the honour of representing the casal faller. The embroidery and finishing are extraordinary, and very costly. Falleras and their families will make significant sacrifices to ensure they have the very best they can afford. The joy and pride with which they are worn is evident in the ofrenda processions, Falleras⁸ dancing and laughing with the young and old alongside, marching bands keeping everyone smiling.

Con mucho encanto, as they say in these parts.

 

With fireworks, noise, the casal faller, falles and Las Falleras now established as the very building blocks of this unique festival, we went about living in and around it for a few days.

 

Having landed on 16^th March, we had almost 4 days until the last minutes of the 19^th saw the fiery end for 2024. You eat when you get the chance in Falles, as the city is packed as if to burst. A waiter in Plaza del Mercado brought a hastily-ordered meal in the shadow of the great falla, and he seemed fit to drop. Falleras walked past in regular clothes, given away by their elaborately styled hair. People passed by laughing and shouting, embracing, holding beers or agua de Valencia in plastic glasses.

 

Walking down to Plaza Ayuntamiento for the first time, a super-realistic falla took the form of several figures scaling the fence surrounding the mascletà area, standing out on top of the fence as a stark commentary on the migrant situation.

 

The Ayuntamiento have their own Falla outside the town hall. 2 enormous white doves touch beaks as they tower above the thousands of observers in the square, the falla infantil was (in an unusual show of humorous flippancy for the town hall) a yellow rubber duck sitting below.

Almost every street had its falla, with some local celebrations having their own theme. We ran into a well-choreographed Moors and Christians-themed procession in Calle Visitación in our own district, seeming to be a theme specific to the area.

 

With the never-ending backdrop of noise from kids’ firecrackers, building to huge bangs from large fireworks deliberately placed in narrow streets for maximum effect, we explored the city and the falles, saw numerous, charming, joyous ofrenda processions with hundreds of Falleras, along with the tiniest of children in traditional dress and their marching bands. It’s clear that everyone was aware of the cultural significance of what they were taking part in here, and there was respect for this, but no solemnity⁹. Joy was the word that constantly came to mind, and the joy made the scenes emotional.

 

We got coffee and found our place for a floral ofrenda to Sant Josep (El Patriarca, the guy for whom this is all done) on the bridge of that name close to our barrio on the morning of the 19^th. A group of Falleras placed flowers at the foot of the statue and a proud speech was made in Valenciano by an official of the local casal faller. Tears of regional pride were shed by the Falleras at the singing of the Valencian anthem. It’s hard to overstate the pride that there people take in being Valenciano… and also Spanish.

We saw as many falles as we could, took in as much as we could, and made our way back to our barrio in time for our own La Cremà already described. The very Spanish lateness of this, plus fitting in food before the essential Plaza Ayuntamiento climax of the whole festival meant that we sadly missed the burning of any of the main falles at 10am¹⁰.

 

We had eaten close to Plaza Ayuntamiento, so we pushed our way into the square and took up a position not too far from the huge fountain and close to Beher, doing a frantic trade in bocadillos de jamon. We were ready for the final acts of Falles, as people pushed towards Beher, towards the fountain, towards the soaring doves, through non-existent gaps in the crowd, searching for non-existent spaces and better views. You had no real choice but to take the crowd as part of the experience and settle for where you were. What was about to happen was mostly in the sky anyway.

 

As is the tradition, an explosive 10-minute and 5-minute warning turned heads towards the town hall clock.

 

Slightly after 11pm, the fireworks started above the mascletà area, great plumes of colour in the night sky. The 2 great doves looked on to the right, in front of the town hall. Illuminated now, but spared from the flames for the moment.

 

We were much closer to this castillo de fuegos than we had been for the regular ones in previous days. Again, the intensity built, the noise built, the colours built… and then suddenly the enormous dove on the left was alight, a huge plume of black smoke climbing. The fireworks reached another light-and-sound climax, the crowd tried to compete, and the light from the huge burning doves took over.

 

La Cremà and Las Falles 2024 was complete. As the doves burned brightly, the crowd stood unmoving, as they had after the mascletà. Staring at the huge burning doves, transfixed… processing what had just happened.

 

Eventually we moved back towards Plaza Reina. The falla there was reduced to burning embers, but I had the sense that there was nothing really sad about these falles reduced to smoking ruins. Their fate was meant to be, it was significant, it was renewal.

 

By the time we got back to our barrio, the cleaning teams were already out. The falla close to the tramlines at Calle Actor Mora was gone, the site hosed down. The real estate office on that corner would open tomorrow. It was the same for the sites where the falles closer to the apartment had stood. The alien visitor falling to earth at this point might be entirely ignorant of anything having occurred, such is the effectiveness of the city-wide clean-up operation.

After a night of much-needed sleep, we headed for Las Arenas and the customary paella. The waiter seemed refreshed, energetic. Possibly for the very same reason as we were. He remembered us from several previous visits, and having established the Va bien? Todo bien? greetings, we enjoyed the usual satisfying paella experience. 

 

On another evening, an old favourite host plied us with his irresistible Spanish-italian food delights and his seemingly endless limoncello. We shopped for things that the apartment needed (and didn’t need) and we enjoyed cold beer and good food in the comfortable spring sunshine.

 

We used the new Linea 10 of Metrovalencia for the first time, visited the City of Arts & Sciences (because you must) the Falles museum, Mercado Central and Mercado Colon. We ate amazing steak in Foc i Fum in Barrio del Carmen. The weather was perfect, and we smelled the orange blossom in every street.

Our pseudo-intimidating vecina joined me in the lift again one evening as I went to the mercadona. She was wearing normal clothes, had her little dog with her, and her mate with no teeth.

 

But we missed the marching bands, and the Falleras, and firecrackers in the street, and the people from the casal faller round the corner… pride and excitement etched all over their faces, as well as their sleep deprivation.

 

Everything was back to normal, but the enchanting thing is that Valencia has no normal.

 

 

1 The start of Fallas was delayed in 2024 out of respect for the victims of the apartment block fires in the Campanar district in February.

 

2 It has been said that the only thing that starts on time in Spain is the bullfight. To that very short list, you can add the Mascletà.

 

3 It was reported that the power of the Mascletà on the final day of Fallas shattered windows around Plaza Ayuntamiento.

 

4 I get this. If you genuinely can't stand Fallas, or you have a good reason for being unable to live with it, you may only be able to avoid it by leaving the city for the duration. It's not a thing that can just be ignored.

5 Falla Camino Barcelona is on Avenida Portugal, literally around the corner from our apartment building. The other casal faller is Falla Actor Mora on Calle Sarrion. Nothing to choose between them in terms of distance from our front door.

6 Mercifully, this is not strictly true. Ninots from the Falles judged to be the best are saved from the flames every year, and installed in the Fallas Museum.

7 So here's the thing, right. All of the fireworks placed inside the falla went straight up into the night sky. The crowd were no more than 4-5 metres away from this thing, and any horizontal projectile would have meant disaster. I'm going to attribute this avoidance of multiple injuries to great skill and planning. Not just good fortune.

8 There are Falleros (i.e male celebrants) also in traditional dress. But it's clear that they're a support act to the Falleras.

9 For great solemnity and austerity in your processions, head for Semana Santa de Malaga next Easter. While impressive and emotional, it is solemn and austere. Your average Fallera in her Falles ofrenda procession could barely resist the temptation to skip and giggle just a little bit.

10 This was a rookie error to be honest. So we have a grand excuse to go back and see it all again. I think you need to see Falles several times anyway, there's no way you can take it all in on one visit

 

 

I want to dedicate this post to 2 groups of people:

 

Those who were lost, and are left suffering, as a result of the horrific February 2024 apartment fires in the Campanar district of Valencia city. Descanso en paz 😔.

 

Those around the world for whom an explosion does not mean a celebration, but threatens the lives of themselves and their families 😔.

 

 

I apologise for the confusing mixture of Castellano and Valenciano in my references in the text. Some references demand the use of one or the other.