Just got back from Valencia where we joined about 2 million others for one of Spain’s most renown festivals. Las Fallas! Should have know we'd have our socks knocked off when the Tourist Office told us "just follow the fire engines". It's all about the fire. Daytime fireworks are the best. Pyro-technicians compete in teams each day and you can forget pretty pictures in the sky, it’s all about the noise, rhythm, the smell of gunpowder and having your bones shaken. It surely wouldn’t be allowed where we come from and it’s heart attack material. Mayhem and danger rule for a week. We stood shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others as the earth shook and the air was compressed and thrown at us and back at us again from behind when it ricocheted off the buildings. And it’s all happening in the narrow city streets where men and women push their way through the crowds selling beer from backpacks to get you right in the mood. The biggest event though is the burning of the Fallas. These are at the centre of the whole festival. They’re paper-mâché statues up to about 40 feet high, whose purpose is definitely to satirise our everyday life. Nothing escapes unscathed as you can see from the photos. There were 760 of them this year, built on every other street corner. Then, the “Cremà” which is where the party ends/begins – the last night of the festival when all of the Fallas are set alight in a blaze of fireworks. It’s an amazing sight especially considering some of them cost as much as half a million Euros. These fires are just amazing. The fire brigade first hoses down the surrounding buildings because the streets are often very narrow, then the pyro-technicians are set about poking fireworks into the heart of the edifices. With explosions and flames and firemen all over the city, the Cremà feels like the nearest thing to an air raid that I ever want to experience. Valencia is such a beautiful city and, to be honest, we wish we had more time to see it without the festival. It would be another experience altogether. It's the home of paella and we didn't even get to taste it while we were there. Ah well, can't have it all. |
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AuthorLenny & Gina Archives
February 2015
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