Las Fallas

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The EU is looked to world wide as a leader on a variety of fronts; progressive social policies, environmental laws, cutting edge technology, and economic efficiency. However the reality of living in Europe can be quite different.
While Spain is certainly notorious for carefree attitudes, and refusals to abandon old ways in favour of tradition, one wonders how this country can exist and thrive within the European community. Sometimes the examples are charming; an entire soccer stadium of 50,000 smoking and eating jamon bocadillos, a donkey pulling a cart through the orange groves of La Huerta outside of the city, stores closing for 4 hours in the middle of the day for siesta. Other times the examples of Spanish tradition can be startling and even discusting; copious amounts of dog poo littering the streets of old town, row upon row of triple parked smart cars, the constant smell of sewage that comes with shoddy plumbing and 300 year old pipes, and perhaps the most extreme example of all, Las Fallas.

Each March, Valencia, already a mildly chaotic but fun loving place, heaves with immigrants searching for the madness that is Las Fallas. Some sleep in five star hotels lining Plaza Ayuntamiento, others sleep on benches in the Jardim del Turia or underneath growing piles of rotting trash. Regardless of accommodation, none of these people will sleep during the 5 official days of the festival and the reasons for this vary.

The constant pounding of fireworks being thrown from balconies, sidewalks and baby carriages only stand to compliment the official fireworks shows being carried out constantly by the penyas (party groups) or by the city government. Marching bands play twenty four hours of the day the only song that they know, "Valencian Fallas". The stages that dot the city scape present garage bands who wail into the night with their renditions of ACDC, Kim Mitchell, and Bon Jovi. Falleras and Falleros march in an endless parade towards Plaza de la Virgin where they will offer flowers to a giant 30 meter statue of the virgin Mary. If some how someone somewhere in Valencia managed to drift into sleep during these proceedings they would be awoken immediately by one of the 2 million additional people yelling, fighting, dancing, singing, drinking, puking, eating, peeing, pooping and copulating in the streets. This all occurs prior to the main event; the ritualistic burning of over 360 giant Styrofoam statues. The scale of these statues cannot be exaggerated, nor can the amount of heat, smoke and pollution created by burning 4 stories of Styrofoam 360 times. This is Fallas.

The entire grating, exhausting and wildly entertaining time I was there in the muck, fighting the good fight with a wine skin on my back and a box of fire crackers in my hand. I drank, I danced, I howled at the moon, and at 5 AM I would try to sleep, only to be awoken at 7AM by Dennie who would just be getting in. When my sister arrived on the last day of Fallas I was tired. I had been through war on my body and was something of a zombie. But onwards we went, eating Churros and Chocolate, attending a fire parade as we sipped calmly on our energy drinks, and finally watching a Fallas burn close to our place.

the next morning we awoke to a ghost town. The streets were clean, the lights were taken down, and people went on living as if Fallas had never occurred. If there hadn't been pictures and witnesses to attest to the fact that the last 5 days did exist, I might have shrugged it off as some strange stress induced dream.

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Photos

Dennie
trying to make it through day 5 of Fallas with a refreshing dose of Burn.

Some little Falleras
on their way to the virgin

The Burning of the fallas
in plaza Ayuntamiento

Comments

[Charene]

Aie Carumba
WOW!!! What a rocktastic adventure in the streets! It looked amazing. I can't believe they put so much work into the fallas just to torch them. But dancing around huge fires must be an exhilarating feeling. Keep up the good work friends! Thanks for sharing:) xoxo Charene

[Amanda]

ah, so that was the styrofoam-burning you mentioned? Aside from the nastiness, it looks really fun! much love, a.