Our professors and program directors tried to prepare us for what Fallas would be and how, despite their best attempts, we wouldn’t fully understand until we lived it. They were right.
If you can recall, I attended La Crida or “The Call” over a month ago. That was supposedly the start of Fallas. The official first day was March 15. A few of the Fallas statues started to appear in the city before then, and shows of mascletas and castillos (fireworks) starting taking place on the weekends leading up as well. Street stands for churros, buñuelos, and drinks started to pop up in the days leading up as well. But, on the morning of March 15, I woke up in a different city than I had fallen asleep in the night before. I opened my balcony door to a full parade of falleros and falleras beneath my window.
The streets were packed with people for as far as you could see. The street market that wasn’t there three days earlier was swarmed with people. When I stepped outside of the Peset doors, there was colorful confetti covering the street, and the dull roar of crowds just a block over. The sky was perfectly blue for the first time in weeks. It’s almost like it knew, too. A group of us got together to follow Manuel and Gary for a walking tour of the nearby streets to go and see the Fallas, many of which had been erected overnight. Metal gates and fences surrounded all of the historical buildings we passed by, providing them a few feet of protection from the festivities to come.
Emma, Anna Rose, and I attempted to make our way to the Plaza de Ayutamiento for the mascletas at 2pm, but could only make it a block to the right of the central plaza. There were so. many. people. You couldn’t get closer than a block to the massive central plaza from any direction. It took us nearly 40 minutes to get back to the Peset, a walk which normally would take a little over 5 mins. It was insanity.
Each Falla varied in size, with some reaching four stories in height. They varied in style, too, depending on the artist, but largely adhered to a more cartoon-ish and colorful style.
This red Queen-of-Hearts inspired Falla was a favorite of our group. A lot of the Fallas included political commentary, some of which was hard to notice upon first glance. Commentary could usually be found in the smaller figures that surrounded the base of the larger Falla.
Pedro Sanchez, the president of Spain, and Carlos Mazón, the president of the community of Valencia, were common subjects of critique. Especially Mazón, who was often depicted entrenched in mud, or in one case, specifically a mud bath with the devil. These critiques are borne from what is generally agreed upon horrible mis-handling of the Dana, the name for the intensive rains and flooding that occurred in Valencia in the fall. On the day of the floods, he wasn’t where he was supposed to be (at work), and many suspect he was instead with his girlfriend, resulting in delayed warnings about the intensity and danger of the rains and floods.
As we wandered around the fallas, reading the signs that explained who they were critiquing (just to make sure you couldn’t miss who they were making fun of), we were amazed just thinking about this happening in the US. A whole massive festival where artist get to spend months depicting political figures as demons or in humiliating scenarios and then burning them down. It was actually interesting to think about. I do wonder if politicians ever think about it when they get entrenched in scandal. That they could become a falla. Anyways, American politics were by no means safe from their critique. Notably, at the biggest Falla I saw, at the foot on the left side Trump could be spotted, depicted wearing a wig, a dress, and poorly done lipstick, standing next to a caricature of Elon Musk grilling. Trump could also be found canoodling with Putin at a few other stops.
Now all this political commentary raised some more questions in our minds, as I may imagine it does in yours. Thankfully, I have some answers! First, a falla group can include from 500 people to well over a thousand. They are largely the ones that pay for a falla, but fallas can also be sponsored by brands. They do not choose the design. They hire an artist/creative team who design and construct the falla throughout the year. Some basic design/theme approvals may occur but this is largely left to the artist. About 800 fallas monuments are set up around the city each year.
These were from Friday night (3/14). Oliver was trying to show off his jujistu kick… or an attempt at one. This was attempt number two. The sequence in all holds no real significance/meaning I just thought it was quite funny. Neil’s professional stretching technique ensured that the injured (Oliver) were able to quickly recover before the planned evening ahead. Everyone had to be in tip-top shape to go out to the discomoviles.
That evening for our group (a mix of americans, spaniards, and other international students) began at the castillos in the Plaza de Ayutamiento. From there, we journeyed into Russafa in search of some good music and a good spot to dance. This was managed with great success. I had an amazing time, spent dancing mainly with Ana, Elena, Raquel, Irene, and Marta, who excitedly announced to me when one of their favorite songs came on. We wandered from discomovil to discomovil, occasionally stopping to marvel at the Fallas we hadn’t passed yet.
Later in the evening, Oliver, Omar, Kelsey, and I decided we were going to go in search of Hayes, Anna Rose, Caroline A, and the rest of their group, who had split off earlier in the night. Following Hayes’ location on Find My iPhone, we began a journey across the city. What should’ve been a half hour walk across the city was completed in twenty as Omar, Kelsey, and I practically ran to keep up with Oliver, who was on the move and could NOT be stopped. We found ourselves at another discomovil, just around the corner from the Peset. I was surprised at how many familar faces I saw! For me, it was almost a moment of realization of how well I’ve come to know this place, and how I’ve come to feel a part of it.
While at the discomovil, alongside chatting with now-established friends, I met two other Americans from Washington State, who were super nice, and very thankful that they found someone to talk to that spoke fluent English. At 4am (so late- I know!), when the discomovil shut down, Oliver, Omar, and I reunited to eat some buñuelos from a nearby street stand. They were amazing. Matias and Rylee also joined us, appearing from a different part of the crowd to come and chat.
At one point, a pirate hat was borrowed from a group of girls that were celebrating their friend’s birthday. The photos are criminal, but quite funny. After this, I called it quits for the night. You may notice in the above photo how absolutely disgusting the ground looks. The central part of the city looked like the front yard of a frat house for the better part of the central days of Fallas. There were cleaning crews that would come out, but nothing was truly clean until the morning after the Crema- but more on that later!
The next day we had bold plans of leaving at 12 pm to try and get a good spot at the mascletas. This will come as little surprise based off of the time I went to sleep the night prior, but we did not infact make that. I woke up to my alarm for breakfast at 10:30am, and after breakfast slept until 3:30pm. Anna Rose and I missed lunch. Shaking off the shock of this, we got dressed to go meet Neil, Sam, Caroline A, and her mom for a walk to go see more of the Fallas around the city.
There is something I have not mentioned until this point, and that is petardos. I may have covered what they are in my previous post, but essentially, they’re small explosives. Like something you could buy from Kroger for the 4th of July in the States but if it was just meant to make noise. Noise ranged from a quick crack to what I imagine a small bomb going off would sound like. Louder than a gunshot for sure. Everywhere you walked people were setting them off. Young children carried small wood boxes filled with them that hung like necklaces around their necks. Some streets were completely blocked off and from one end to the other there were just remnants of petardos, as well as people lighting new ones. By the last day, you could barely see the pavement on these streets.
One of the Fallas we encountered on our journey had an option where you could pay two euros to get closer to it and walk through it. We of course went through. It was so cool to get to see the work up close and look at all the tiny details that covered every surface.
After dinner that evening, we got ready again to head out to the castillos. Neil was dead set on seeing the castillos every night of Fallas, and so our group followed suit. It really was so worthwhile. I can’t imagine I’ll ever see fireworks like those again in my life, at least for quite some time. Quite tired, Maud, Sara, and I decided just to walk by a few Fallas before calling it a night.
All was going as planned until Neil and Sam noticed a petardos tucked into the corner of one of the squares. Nothing could be done once they set their eyes on the prize. They had practically blown through everything they had bought only two days prior, and so it was time for the restock. Neil laughed when he saw the fear in my eyes as I noted the large bag he carried out. The boys had already established a habit of trying to scare the group by setting petardos off nearby without warning. This purchase was a promise that the nonsense would continue.
Now day three of Fallas also happened to be St. Patrick’s Day. With the joy of a new stash of petardos, and some Irish spirit in his heart, Neil O’Hegarty put together a pub crawl competition for our group to partake in. Our group consisted of 17 UGA students plus Omar and Alejandro. We all dug through our closets, and a local dollar store, to find suitable amounts of green to deck ourselves out in.
Turns out, no one in Spain really celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, so we got a LOT of weird looks throughout the day. This being said, we were welcomed with open arms at all of our stops as we encountered enclaves of americans, irish, and brits tucked away in each pub, celebrating the holiday in their best green.
The goal was nine pubs, a drink at each pub. (Spoiler: we only made it to five). We were divided randomly into teams. I landed the dream team- shoutout Neil and Kelsey! Together, we had to compete in various mini-games at each stop with the goal of keeping our score as low as possible. Like in golf, the team with the lowest score wins! Out of about eight teams, we managed to land second place! We think we should’ve won, but there was no arguing with the ref (Sarah).
We all came back afterwards completely exhausted! We were out from roughly 3pm until dinner at 8pm. It was so much fun! I chatted with a lot of people in our group that I don’t usually talk with as much which was nice! We had an absolute blast cheering each other on through the competitions and gaining bucket hats, face paint, and even wristbands from the different pubs that we went to! Neil, James, and I even took a selfie with a British woman who thought it was so fun that we were out celebrating in our green that she wanted to send a photo to her kids. It was a fire selfie.
That night, it looked like it was going to rain, and I was too tired to go out again anyways, so Rylee, Matias, and I opted for a movie night in. We built a super awesome couch pit in the movie room and tucked in to watch The Godfather. I’ve been meaning to watch it for forever so I was so glad to finally have the chance! The photo is from after the movie when some of the Spaniards came back from the castillos and very kindly shared some of their churros with us.
Now little did I know that this choice would set me off on an absolute tear of movie-watching in the days following. (The choice to watch the Twilight movies could’ve also influenced this). Multiple nights in a row I’ve crowded into the movie room with various groups of company, and locked in to watch a film. I’ve finally checked off a few that have been on my watch list for forever! The couch-pit set up has now been witness to some of the greatest movies of all time, with more to come before we leave. Hopefully Cinema Paradiso will be next. Matias, Rylee, and I also got to have a good laugh on the evening of the Godfather viewing when Hayes returned from castillos just soaking wet from the rain. We knew then we had definitely made the right choice.
The next day we headed out at 12:30 to get a good spot for the castillos at 2pm. The difference in sound between this day and the visit from earlier in this post was insane. You could feel the ground beneath you shake, and the buildings on the other end of the plaza completely disappeared into the smoke. Sound ricocheted off of the surrounding buildings and just pounds through your chest. When the finally occurred, we all turned to each other, jaws dropped, as the sound poured over us. It almost felt like standing underneath the bottom of a powerful waterfall, but of noise. It was insane.
After lunch, Neil, Sam, Anna Rose, Caroline A, and I took a walk to the Plaza de la Virgen to go see all of the flower offerings that were laid out. The past two days it had been nearly impossible to cross some of the major walkways in the city, as the streets were blocked off for the thousands of falleras and falleros that made their journey through the city to deliver their flowers to create the statue of Mary. Her patterned white cloak she wears in the above photo is made completely of flowers. It was insane the number of flowers in the Plaza. The central fountain was almost completely hidden by a wall of bouquets and other flower-centric displays.
That night, after dinner, we got ready for La Noche de La Cremá – The Night of the Fallas Burning.
It was insane. We packed into a small square with tons of other people to watch the falla burn. Firefighters took down the advertising banners that had been hung up on the walls of the surrounding buildings, and sprayed water onto the walls. On one side, they hung heat-protectant banners to protect the residential balconies that stood only a few feet from from the soon-to-be-burned falla.
Lifts took the bomberos up to the back of the falla, where, using pickaxes, they carved out spaces in the back and stuffed in bags of fire starter. When they were done with this, the trucks backed out, and the firefighters put their helmets on, we knew it was time. What I was not expecting when the lights went out, was that it would all start with a fireworks show. The first barrage of lights and noise in the small square was certainly a surprise. When the fireworks ended, an anticipatory silence filled the smokey square. Then, slowly, a faint warm light began to flower and shine through the smoke. Three minutes later we stood in front of a raging multi-story fire. Orange light flickered on the sides of the buildings. Heat filled the square as black smoke billowed into the air. The firefighters used hoses to guide the smoke up into the sky and away from the crowd. This helped greatly, but bits of ash still fell from the sky, dotting my face, and making me thankful for the panuelo tied around my face.
We were told that we would only be able to see one falla burn, but to our surprise, on our walk home, we encountered an untouched falla, with a crowd still awaiting the arrival of the firefighters. A large portion of our group decided they didn’t want to wait, and headed back to the Peset for the night. But AR, Caroline A, Neil, Sam, and I toughed it out for another hour to watch it burn. It was so worth it. This falla was wider than the other one we witnessed, and even hotter. At one point, I had to turn my face away from the intense heat. AR and I made it back to our room afterwards, covered in ash, smelly, and completely exhausted. I spent most of the next day watching movies.
The days after that, I largely spent watching movies, working on my honors essay, and planning for my remaining time in Europe.
We spent the afternoon of Saturday the 22nd at the Oceonografíc, the aquarium in Valencia. My favorite residents of the aquarium by far were the focas (seals). It was mesmerizing to watch then swirl past the windows. Oh, and they’re of course super cute. There were also sea dragons that were fascinating to watch. They really seem like they’re from a whole other world. I think I spent four hours there. They also had beluga whales, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. They’re HUGE!
On Sunday the 23rd, we ceded our reign over the movie room for the night, as Spain was playing the Netherlands for a spot in the World Cup. At the peak, I was one of 34 students packed in the room, watching the match. At one point, the security guard poked his head through the door, and we thought he was coming to tell us to quiet down, but in reality, he just wanted to come watch the penalty kicks as well. It was a tense few minutes as the kicks occurred.
When Spain made the game-winning penalty kick, the room exploded.
My week since then has passed pretty uneventfully. We had a dinner for Dr. Baker, as he headed back to Georgia this week, and on Wednesday Manuel and Kelsey went to Juliet and picked up an order of cookies for everyone. It was the most delicious motivator for my work on my essay. A group of us piled into the couch-pit to watch Howl’s Moving Castle. Would highly recommend if you’re looking for a light, and visually stunning watch!
Now, this afternoon, I need to finish packing my bags, as Ava, Caroline A, Anna Rose, and I are headed off to Venice this afternoon! We’ve had this trip planned for a bit, but it really started to feel real as I worked on packing this morning. Until next time!
Sincerely,
Caroline
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