You must have heard of it once before – and if you don’t, well today is the day to discover it – Las Fallas in Valencia. The biggest festival of Valencia, visited by thousands of people from the whole world every year. It starts at the last Sunday of February and ends the 19th of March, with the last week as most important part. But why is it so popular?
Why everybody should visit Las Fallas in Valencia
1. You are a student, so you have to
When you are in Valencia as a student there is no excuse to not live the experience of Las Fallas. You will discover the traditions of the Valencian population, with their special traditional clothing, weird interest in fireworks, as well as their way of partying all together, with family and friends on the streets, for almost a month! Discover more about visiting Las Fallas as a student here.
2. The amazing dolls
From the 15th of March, the Valencian Fallas associations will start to build up these amazing dolls on all the streets of Valencia. They are called “Fallas” and each Falla exists of dolls, which they call “ninots”. Don’t underestimate these creations because some of them are more than 30 meters high and yes, they cost a lot of money. When the Fallas are ready, they will be criticized by a jury, because one of the ninots will survive the fire on the last day of the festival. On March 19, all the Fallas will be set on fire during “La Crema”, but the one doll that is the most beautiful one will go to the Fallas Museum. Imagine that almost the whole city is full of creations like this, on every corner of the street – enough to discover!
3. Nit del foc
On March 18th, Nit del foc takes place, which means: “The Night of Fire”. During this night, there will be an amazing show of fireworks around 1:30 am – yes, at night! There are some smaller shows between 15 – 18 of March, but the last one is the biggest, and absolutely the best one. Don’t forget that almost the whole city is going to visit this show, so there will be many people waiting there early.
4. La Mascleta
The first Mascleta is held when the festival starts, on the last Sunday of February. A Mascleta is a firework show that is held every day at 2 pm from 1 to 19 of March, on Plaza del Ayuntamiento (The City Hall Square of Valencia). Like we said before, they have a weird interest in fireworks, let’s explain this: since the Mascleta is held during the day you can only see smoke, sometimes some colors – if you are standing close – and a lot, A LOT, of bangs and noises. However, it is something you should have seen and lived together with the Valencian people once in your life, you’ll be amazed!
5. The flower offerings
It is not all about fireworks and partying, because Las Fallas is also about tradition. During “L’Ofrena de flors”, more than 100,000 members of the Fallas associations offer flowers to the Virgen de los Desamparados (the holy virgin of the needy), located on Plaza de la Virgen. They all bring red, white or pink carnations in traditional clothing to the statue. You can contemplate this offering yourself because it will take two days in total, and the result is incredible.
We have given you 5 reasons why you should visit Las Fallas in Valencia, but there is so much more to see! Such as the light shows in Calle Cuba and Calle Sueca, the fire procession in Calle Colon or the many churros and food trucks around the whole city. Something that should be discovered all by yourself!