Fallas Festival. UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Fallas festival is the biggest festival of the city of Valencia and has very strong popular roots, since it is the citizens of all walks of life organized in Fallas commissions (more than 345 in the Cap i Casal) who are the real protagonists of the festival. This is regulated by the Central Fallera Board, an autonomous municipal body, and thousands of people, visitors and tourists also participate, generating a great mass festive movement and an important impact on the city’s economy.
The Fallas date back both to the satirical and burlesque cadafals that the neighbors already erected in the mid-eighteenth century and to the bonfires that were lit next to the farmsteads of L’Horta. Over time the festival became institutionalized and became more complex and larger, until in the twenties of the last century appeared the Fallera Week, and later the Fallas sections or the position of fallera major of Valencia, as well as new and multitudinous festivities such as the collection of prizes, the Offering of Flowers to the Mare de Déu dels Desamparados or the mascletadas.
The cadafals, falleros or fallas, authentic epicenter of the festival, were initially made by the same neighbors, but since the thirties of the twentieth century an authentic industry of construction of fallas was developed by the fallas artists, who have maintained year after year a unique trade, in which it is necessary to control a large amount of artistic knowledge, and that has given very reputable names to Valencian art. The Fallas artists are grouped in the Artisan Guild of Fallas Artists and their main reference is the City of the Fallero Artist, in the Benicalap neighborhood, where the Museum of the Fallero Artist is located. Today, artists master a multitude of techniques and a variety of building materials, with which they build the fallas and the dolls that compose them. Since 1934, a doll pardoned in the Ninot Exhibition has been chosen, which, once saved from the flames, becomes part of the Fallero Museum, a unique museum in the world located in the Montolivete neighborhood, which contains a collection of large and children’s dolls that can be admired by tourists and citizens throughout the year.
The Fallas officially begin with The Call from the Torres de Serranos, and already late in March begins the long plantà of the fallas of special section, although formally the plant of the children's fallas is on the morning of the 15th and that of the big ones the night of that same day. The next day the jury decides on the prizes to be awarded, which are collected by the commissions during two days. However, the Offering of Flowers to the Humpback stands out for its emotionality, capable of mobilizing more than 100,000 falleros. At the same time, the most varied festive activities take place in the demarcations of the Fallas commissions and their casals, which offer an active cultural life throughout the year. The mascletades in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento set the rhythm of the festive days and, like the fireworks, attract huge crowds of gunpowder lovers, which also has other interesting events such as the despertà or the correfoc. The Cavalcades del Ninot, Infantil i del Foc complete a packed programme of street parties, both day and night. At dawn on March 18, the Night of Fire explodes with a spectacular fireworks display.
March 19 is Saint Joseph's Day, the main day of the festival. In the morning the wreath is laid to the patriarch and the commissions exhaust their last parades, culminating in the mascletadas or tracas in each demarcation. In the afternoon, the Cavalcade of Fire, in which groups of devils carry the fire of La Cremà, gives rise to the last hours of the festival, culminating in La Cremà, first of the children's fallas and then of the big ones, in the middle of an authentic popular festival of pyrotechnics. In 2016, the Fallas were declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.