Las Fallas is a uniquely Valencian event that usally takes place in March every year, in which elaborate sculptures are constructed and painted over the course of the year, assembled…and then burned. It’s the biggest event in Valencia every year and this year it was even bigger because it had been postponed for two years thanks to Covid. Turnout for this year’s event was enormous and enthusiastic and the fallas (a word that has several meanings, in this case the groups that construct the sculptures (or fallas) in the year between Fallas (the event)) had budget saved up plus extra funding from the city to make the sculptures bigger and more elaborate than ever.
The celebration begins at the end of February and extends to March 19, the Feast of St. John, patron saint of carpenters. One of the Fallas committees had an installation in the plaza right in front of us so we got a front row seat to the whole event this year. Once the sculptures had been assembled, the last 10 days or so were nonstop parties throughout the city, with drinks and food being sold at all times of day and night and people walking through the city to look at the many sculptures. Oh and fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
In late February crews begin to arrive in plazas big and small around the city and put up poles from which they hang large stage lighting arrays, and hanging lights along the streeets. About a week ahead of the event, trucks begin to show up with sculpture pieces that they then offload and the assembly process begins.
This is right in front of our place and we could see it was going to be big.After a day of work, you could see the structure begin to take shapeOur plaza has been transformed! The crowds and vendors ran nonstop for nearly two weeks. The large crowd in the distance is spillover from Plaza d’Ayuntiamento for a mascleta.In my walks around town for the next week or so, I could watch the structures go up.This is the biggest one, in front of City Hall. It has an environmentla themeYou can get some sense of the scale of these things with our friends sweeping up in the foreground. This isn’t even one of the bigger ones.
Several days of hard work (and hard drinking from what I can tell) later, the fallas are ready to be judged. This is when the party really begins. Churro and alcohol stands have gone up everywhere, the many people who have been coming by to check out the progress of the sculptures suddenly doubles, and at all hours of day and night there are people passing, walking the city to see the many fallas.
“Our” falla, with a Salvador Dali themeThe detail work on the sculptures can be amazingSponsored by a gaming / gambling company, go figureThis was the biggest falla in the city this year, standing some 5 stories tall and chuck-a-block with imagery.Every day at 2:00 in the Plaza D’Ayuntamiento there’s a “mascleta” or sound show using fireworks. There are also nighttime fireworks. All events are incredibly well attended.The fallas all have a message, usually overtly political. The placards add some context to the sculptures, sadly they were all written in Valenciano which I cannot read so some of the messages were obscured.It’s a safe guess that the puppets are local or national political figures. The puppeteers? I’m guessing Europe but I don’t really know.You can get lost in the details.This fella should be recognizableThe sculptures are made with wood framing and styrofoam to create the shapes and then painted with acrylic. When they burn, it creates a black cloud of nastiness. This year a few sculptures were made from paper, clearly an experiment in a greener Fallas for the future.Commentary on Brexit. Much is being said here, not terribly complimentary to the British or the EU.Brits on the left, EU on the rightBoris and a soccer fan make an appearanceAnother environmental theme, this one lamenting the pollution of l’Albufera, the lake and farmland just south of the city from which much of the rice for paella comes.Given that they’re about to light this guy on fire, the level of detail displayed here is remarkableLa Virgen, unfinished. The Church erects and places the white and red flowers in the structure. Each of the fallas groups throughout the city then bring an offering of flowers ahead of St. John’s day.The big night has arrived! Crowds gather in all of the squares with fallas to watch la Créma, when the sculptures are set on fire. In theory it all takes place just before midnight but in practice each of the big fallas requires a fire crew to attend and keep everything safe. Our falla, at the center of town, didn’t burn until about 1 AMThe children’s falla was lit first, this was at about 11:00Fireworks are used to set the fire, after the falla is partly destroyed and the parts piled into the middleAnd up she goesUntil next year!
Crews worked overnight to clean up and by morning there was hardly a trace of the fallas. Within a few days all of the tents and stands were gone and that was Las Fallas 2022.
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