Traveling to a country or city during their signature festival is a fantastic call. People are out in the streets day and night. The very best of the local cuisine is available on every corner. And the eccentricities of the culture are on full display. It can be a little like diving into the deep end of a culture, or in this case of Valencia, Spain’s Las Falles party — a trial by fire.
Las Falles is a nearly week long blow out. The whole affair kicks off on the 14th of March at eight AM with a brass band marching down every street with locals in tow tossing fireworks. Good morning! Over the next days there are fireworks displays each day at 2pm, followed by tons of street food and general merry-making. There are flowers fests and more fireworks every night, along with light and music shows.
The whole week, huge puppets (ninots) on platforms (falles) are paraded around and installed in town squares. The themes are often influenced by current events and meant to be satirical so everyone can have a good laugh at last year’s news.
Valencia is arguably the best city for food in Spain — come @ me Madrid, Barcelona, sit down, you’re drunk. I mean, you don’t f*ck with the mythical birthplace of Paella (a peasant rice dish).
During Las Falles local cooks take to the streets and start fires right in the middle of them. It’s kinda like a walk up campfire in the middle of the city where massive pans of paella are at the ready around every corner — which, if we’re being honest, kinda sounds like pure bliss.
Yesterday — after four days and nights of reverie — the Cavalcada del Foc started with a massive parade of floats with more puppets winding through the city. As the day progressed, crowds started to gather and fill Valencia’s streets. More paella was cooked and eaten. Beers and cocktails in plastic cups were dolled out from pop up cervecerías. Music banged and echoed along the tall canyons that the buildings of Valencia cut into every street. The anticipation grew and grew.
What were they waiting for? Every one of those puppet’s platforms were filled with incendiary explosives.
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And then the whole party explosively climaxed in Le Cremà — or The Burning. All the floats, statues, and puppets were burned in the squares across the city to celebrate the arrival of Spring. A tradition dating back to the artisans of 500 years ago who used to get rid of their unused wood after a long winter by dragging it out to the square and lighting that shit on fire as a sort of cleansing and renewal.
It’s metal AF and should 100% be on your travel list.
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