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LAS FALLAS
PROGRAMME 2007
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From March 1 to 19:
- Mascletà everyday at 14.00 in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento/Town Hall Square
Thursday March 15:
- 08.00 Plantà/Erecting of the Children’s Fallas.
- 14.00 Mascletà in the town hall square.
- 20.00 Closing time at the Children’s Ninot Exhibition in the square outside the Nuevo Centro.
- 00.00 (midnight) Plantà/Erecting of all the Fallas
- 00.00 (midnight) Fireworks on the Paseo de la Alameda
Friday March 16:
- 14.00 Mascletà
- 16.30 Plaza Ayuntamiento/Town Hall Square exhibition of children’s ‘Fallas Fiesta’ including presentations, masques, paintings, drawings and games.
- 22.30 ‘Cabalgata Folklórica’ - a procession celebrating local regional festivities. The route will be: Calle Xàtiva.
- 01.00 Fireworks in Paseo de la Alameda
Saturday March 17
- 09.30 Fallas Awards Ceremony - this time the awards for the ‘grown-up’ Fallas. Including presentation, ceremonies, ‘best lit’ and best decorated street contest. All this at the Rostrum installed outside the Ayuntamiento/Town Hall in the Town Hall Square.
- 14.00 Mascletà
- 16.00 Floral offering to Virgen de los Desamparados
- 18.00 (Tony, can you put the same as the piece you need to translate here)
- 01.00 Fireworks on the Paseo de la Alameda
Sunday 18 March:
- 14.00 Mascletà in the town hall square. DON’T MISS THIS!
- 16.00 Flower offerings
- 18.00 Ehxibition by the Valencia Hot-air Balloon school in the Turia dry riverbed
- 01.30 ‘Nit de Foc’
Monday March 19:
- 14.00 Mascletà
- 19.00 Cabalgata del Fuego (Procesion of Fire) taking the route departing from Calle Ruzafa, Calle Colón and ending in Porta de la Mar.
- 22.00 Cremà (the burning) of the Children’s Fallas.
- 22.30 Cremà (the burning) of the Children’s Fallas awarded first prize in the Special Section.
- 23.00 Cremà of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento Children’s Falla.
- 00.00 Cremà of all the Fallas of Valencia (except the really enormous one in the town hall square - which is later)
- 00.00 Ramillete de Fuegos Aéreos (very big firework display!) and the Cremà of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento Falla.
The Fallas museum is located in a former Vincentian covent and holds the answers to the long history of Europe’s most colourful and loud festival. There is an impressive hall in the museum which is home to ninots dating from the 1930s to 1950s.
The winning ninots (one from the large fallas and another from the children's ones) are brought to this museum to be displayed alongside photos of the best fallas and prize-winning posters, in turn becoming a monument to popular culture and to the annual Valencian fiesta.
Fallas museum address: Plaza de Monteolivete, 4
Tel: 96 352 54 78 (Ext 4625)
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00-14.00 and 16.30-20.30
Sundays 10.00-15.00
Closed on Mondays |
If you want to understand the real sense of Fallas, you should know what these terms mean:
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La Mascletà - Incredibly noisy fireworks let off during the daytime to make as much noise as possible. The Mascletà held each day at 14:00 in the town hall square is impossible to describe in words - you have to experience it for yourself!
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El Ninot - A small part of a Fallas sculpture - typically a human figure of breathtaking detail and craftsmanship.
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La plantà - The installation or ‘planting’ of the Fallas sculptures around the city.
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La cremà – The last evening of the festival when the monuments are set on fire.
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La Verbena – street parties, paella cook offs and live music arranged by Falleros from the community of Falleros; normally you need to be invited but there are so many around the streets of Valencia that people wouldn’t notice if you joined in.
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La Nit de Foc - a spectacular fireworks display on the Paseo de la Alameda, (see programme for more details)
From Friday to Sunday (March 16-18) tours of the fallas will be conducted in English by Turiart.
Starting at 11.00 from outside the post office in the town hall square, the principal fallas of the area will be visited and the mysteries of the caricatures or ninots, explained. The trip around the central area of Valencia also includes detours into associated shops, such as where the falleras have their costumes made up. The tours end in time for the 14.00 mascletà and cost 15 euros; 10 for children aged four to 12, including a present. For an optional 12 euros per person there is a traditional paella lunch in at a falla clubhouse or peña, though for this, bookings should be made via www.turiart.com.
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By Jayne Lovett
TELEVISION
More than 120 million people around the world will be able to watch the burning of the fallas or la cremà on March 19 courtesy of the television satellite system set up by the Nou Campanar falla. With a budget of some 650,000 euros, it is the most expensive of all and is 30 metres tall. It is the first time such a service has been extended and more than 70 channels, including CNN, have expressed an interest, while practically all the national stations will transmit live from there. The fallera commission is donating 25 per cent of their money to the Foundation for Justice in the Valencia Region.
SECURITY
Nearly 4,000 police officers will be patrolling the city streets this Fallas, half from the local police and the rest made up from the national corps. Their main priorities are to ensure crowd safety, guard against petty theft and vandalism, car robberies, traffic control including motorcycle speed and the consumption of alcohol by minors. The sale of fireworks and bar closing times will also be monitored.
LIGHTING UP
Last weekend 750,000 lights of the of Sueca-Literato-Azorín street decoration – the most of its kind ever seen in Valencia - were lit up along with the commission members’ faces as they were awarded the top prize for best illuminated street for the 15th consecutive year.
The illumination was all the more powerful for the polemic which had preceded it; a group of residents had taken legal action over the proximity of the oil canisters, the difficulty of accessing their own garages and the dirt left by the burning of the falla or cremà in Calle Sueca. The system is now connected to the central electricity network and the commission president said: “It has taught us to keep fighting to the end to retain our customs and traditions.”
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