Each year, from March 15 to 19, Valence comes alive with the appearance of immense cardboard figures installed at all its street corners. The fallas, which take their name from these monumental complexes, are the occasion for the biggest popular festival in the old Spanish city. For a week, the atmosphere is at its peak, between processions, bursts of firecrackers during the day and fireworks at night. Before a big final bonfire, which will burn down these ephemeral sculptures.

A burning popular satire

The origin of the Valencia fallas is lost in past centuries, but it is customary to say that they are the heritage of a practice of the city’s craftsmen in medieval times. These, to light up their workshop in the fall, manufactured wooden racks on which they fixed oil lamps. When, when the sun returned in the spring, the lamps became useless, they burned them in front of their workshop.
We quickly had fun dressing the carriers with pieces of fabric, giving them an increasingly assertive human aspect. At the same time, these parodies of firefighters acquired a caricature and festive dimension: the people had found a way to make the happy satire of the powerful. Over the centuries, the figures have been more meticulously worked, becoming real pasteboard characters called ninots, themselves grouped into thematic sets, the fallas. These impressive monuments no longer have much to do with simple pieces of wood decorated with rags; they are rather reminiscent of these characters of giant cartoons that we meet in amusement parks.

Ephemeral masterpieces

Nowadays as in the past, the fallas are destined to end in flames. This does not prevent falleros artists, some of whom are professionals who also work on Hollywood decorations (like a local star, Regino Mas), from creating real works of art with a budget that can reach up to two million euros! If once, wood and plaster were the basic materials, now fiberglass or polyester can lighten the fallas, which can reach more than 15 m in height. The themes are not bothered by politically correct considerations: we saw Rita Barbera, the mayor of Valencia, on all fours, dressed in sado-maso and whipped by Jordí Pujól; a harsh criticism of anorexic girls or even examples of the mutants that the environment is preparing for us.

Despite the burlesque side of the caricature, the event is taken very seriously. Each district of Valence presents its own falla, the theme of which was chosen by a local commission month in advance. A competition divided into several categories (it differentiates in particular the work of adults from that of children) rewards the best ensembles. And the ninotthe most successful, who will obtain the title of ninot indultat, will have the privilege of being the only one not to end in flames. Throughout the year, you can also discover at the Fallas museum in Valencia all the ninot indultates who have escaped cremation.

The course of the fallas does not vary much from year to year. The plantá, when we discover the monumental sculptures on the squares and street crossings of Valence, takes place on March 15 at midnight. On the morning of March 17, the fallas who have won a prize come to receive it in the town hall square (plaza del Ayuntamiento). That same day and the next day, at 4 p.m., the processions offallas set off to reach the basilica, against which a wall of flowers is traditionally erected in homage to the Virgen de los Desamparados, patron saint of the city. Be careful, because the city is then almost paralyzed. The weekends in flames on the evening of the 19th, when the crema takes place, the firing of the fallas.

Bombs and firecrackers

What would the fallas be without his falleras and his mascletas? The first, ambassadors of the festival, and the second, spectacular bursts of firecrackers daily, are inseparable from this popular festival.

From the month of January, each district commission presents the most graceful of its young daughters, the embodiment of Valencian women. The Fallas are adorned in their finest, fashionable eighteenth century silk dress, embroidered fabrics, jewelry adornment, gold comb and mantilla short a traditional and expensive suit. One of they are elected Fallera Mayor, as well as a little girl who obtains the title ofFallera Mayor Infantil. For a week, these Valencia ambassadors will be at all events, a good opportunity for them to rub shoulders with the cream of the city.

The mascletás, in turn, start from 1 st March on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. They take their name from the masclet, the largest of the firecrackers, and it is a real pyrotechnic show that we witness in the middle of the day! The backfire resonates in front of each fallafrom 2 p.m., but it is necessary in the morning for the fireworks to prepare the garlands of wrapped firecrackers that will envelop the streets of the city in a cloud of smoke. Sensitive ears be warned: nothing to do with our nice firecrackers of July 14. Just for the mascleta in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, almost 120 kg of explosives go up in smoke. And to top it all, do not miss the fireworks fired every night on the old course of the Rio Túria. An explosive festival.

Some practical advice

– Please note for one week, the center of Valence is prohibited from any traffic other than that of buses. Avoid coming by car.
– Supplements from local newspapers (El Levante, El Mercantil Valenciano, Las Provincias, El País) publish a very practical map on the different fallas, their location, the competition category, the artist fallero.
– For a frenzied mascletas, direction plaza del Ayuntamiento: impressive! Otherwise, a neighborhood mascleta wedged between the trees of a small street can make just as much fuss, if not more. After amascleta, be vigilant: some carcasses may not have exploded.
– For the fireworks, the best served areas are on the paseo de la Ciudadela, the puente de Mar, the plaza de América, the puente Aragón and the paseo de la Alameda.

Little addresses in Valence

Or sleep?
Warning! Plan your accommodation well in advance, because hotels are very quickly crowded.
– Hostal Alicante, Ribeira 8, 46002. Tel. and fax: (00-34) 963-51-22-96. Not far from RENFE train station and plaza del Ayuntamiento. At 2 e floor. Rooms at 30 € with shower, 40 € with shower and toilet. Housed in a bourgeois building overlooking a pedestrian street where tapas bars abound, simple rooms, clean and equipped with AC, but quite small (those on the street are larger). Young and friendly welcome.

Where to eat?
– La Riuá, c / Mar 27. Tel.: (00-34) 963-91-45-71. Closed Sunday and Monday evening. A la carte meals from € 15. Restaurant specializing in Valencian cuisine and one of the best in town, according to the many prizes and awards hanging on the walls. No less than 16 rice dishes, as well as a wide choice of fish, including an excellent albufera salmon, washed down with wines from the region. The welcome is pleasant and the clientele quite touristy, which will not prevent the boss from coming to chat at your table while his wife is cooking, and his son-in-law is serving.

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