Las Fallas 2024

It’s been two years since I visited Valencia for Las Fallas and during that time I made the move from the USA and I’m now living in Spain. (More details on the move in another post). If you haven’t read the previous post ‘Finally Las Fallas’ covering my first visit, here are a few details to outline what Las Fallas is all about.

The most popular origin story is that carpenters burnt all their scraps of wood leftover to clean out their workshops for Spring. These festivals, also called feasts of San Jose since they are celebrated in honor of Saint Joseph, patron saint of the carpenters, take place in March. This year’s festival began on 1st March and ended at La Crema on 19th March.

The Mascleta takes place every day at 2pm in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, in the city center. Although the Mascleta is a pyrotechnics display, the main purpose seems to be who can make the loudest explosions, most smoke and cacophony of sounds. The Masclet meaning a firecracker. The Mascleta, the locals will tell you, is all about the ‘experience’ of being so close to the very loud explosions, the screeching and the smoke. The most cheers and applause is given for the explosions that you can actually feel and for an extended period. (During one of the Mascletas I was leaving my apartment several miles from the city center and could hear the explosions very clearly). You can check out some videos of the Mascelta from the previous Las Fallas post ‘Finally Las Fallas’.

The festival kicks into full gear when the Fallas monuments, sculptured displays usually of a satirical content, are placed all over the city for viewing by the public. These displays number around 400 and are usually accompanied by a children’s version separate from the main displays. The Ninots are due to be burned at La Crema a few days later and only those judged to be the best are rescued and hauled off for display in the Ninot museum.

When the time comes for La Crema the public gathers at each monument across the city and the display is set on fire. The fire is intense and within minutes what was a beautifully made creation is reduced to a pile of ashes. The burning starts at around 10pm and the penultimate one is burned just after midnight, which leaves the final display in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in front of the Town Hall.

It’s not all about the Fallas though, there are many parades throughout the city with locals in their traditional dress and in particular there is the Offrenda de la Virgen. A huge structure which sits in the Plaza de la Virgen is decorated by flowers brought in by the parades over the two days before the end of the festival. There are parties, firework displays and music festivals among the many events going on during Las Fallas. The neighborhoods taking part decorate their streets with light displays and many have stalls that sell food and drink (looks similar to the decorations and markets at Christmas-time in some other countries).

I ‘discovered’ more things going on this time around than my previous visit as I knew my way around the city a lot more this time and was able to see more of the ‘communal’ side of the neighborhoods and how they celebrate with street parties.

As it wasn’t my first Fallas this time around I was able to understand more of the festival and discover that there is a whole other side to the festival and parades. There are some that argue the festival has older origins based on Pagan rituals of fire, similar to other festivities such as San Anton, the bonfires of San Anton and San Miguel. I was waiting for the start of a large parade when I ‘discovered’ a whole host of ‘differently dressed’ participants.

During the time that the monuments were on display across the city, I wandered around trying to capture as many of them as possible but still ended up only capturing a small proportion of the 400 or so main ones before they were burnt. Las Fallas is probably not for everyone, but if you enjoy lively music, colorful parades, fireworks constantly exploding the only real downside is that it brings in huge crowds to the city center which number around a million and is growing each year. They all come for ‘five days of fiesta’ and what is undoutedly the highlight to the festival calendar in Valencia, Spain.