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Popular festival · Valencia
Valencia’s festival, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, in which hundreds of satirical monuments of wood, cardboard and cork are erected in the streets, visited for days and burned on the night of March 19 amid fireworks, music and flowers.
In the photo: Valencia
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Fallas of Valencia — Valencia
From March 1 to 19, with the main days from March 15 to 19; the official opening, the Crida, is on the last Sunday of February.
March
Dates change every year: check this year's date before you travel.
The festival
The Fallas are Valencia’s biggest festival and one of Spain’s best-known celebrations. In March, each neighborhood raises its falla in streets and squares — a large monument of wood, cardboard, cork and other materials made up of figures called ninots that satirize politics, customs, sports and city life. For several days Valencia becomes an open-air museum, with music in the streets, parades in traditional dress and gunpowder at every moment. On the night of March 19, Saint Joseph’s Day, the monuments are burned. In 2016 UNESCO declared the festival Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The most accepted tradition links the origin to the city’s carpenters, who on the eve of Saint Joseph, their patron saint, burned scraps of wood and the supports they used to hang lamps in their workshops during winter. Over time these bonfires gained old clothes, dolls and figures that imitated well-known people, and the celebration became a good-humored critique of society. Today each falla is built by a neighborhood commission, with specialized artists who work year-round in workshops.
The festival officially begins with the Crida, the call made at the Torres de Serranos on the last Sunday of February. From March 1 to 19, every day the Plaça de l'Ajuntament hosts the mascletà, a gunpowder spectacle designed to be heard and felt, with explosions in an increasing rhythm that make the ground tremble; the falleras mayores give the signal to start from the town hall balcony. On the night of March 15 to 16 the plantà takes place, when the monuments are installed in the streets, and the following morning the jury chooses the winners in each category.
On March 17 and 18, falleros and falleras in traditional silk costumes and hairstyles with combs and jewelry march in long lines in the Oferenda of flowers to the Virgen de los Desamparados, the city’s patroness. With the branches they bring, artisans assemble a large floral mantle on the image displayed in the Plaza de la Virgen, next to the cathedral, which remains exposed for a few days. Nights feature fireworks in the old Turia riverbed, culminating with the Nit del Foc in the early hours of March 18 to 19, plus festivities, dances and concerts in the neighborhoods.
The cremà closes everything on the night of March 19. First the children’s fallas burn; then the large ones, in all neighborhoods, and lastly the one in the Plaça de l'Ajuntament. One ninot from each category, adult and child, is saved — chosen by public vote at the exhibition that gathers the figures from the fallas before the festival; the pardoned ninots go to the Museu Faller. For visitors, the Fallas bring together street art, tradition, music and a whole city involved in the celebration.
A mascletà in the Plaça de l'Ajuntament, preferably on one of the big days between March 15 and 19. The night of the plantà, March 15 to 16, when the monuments go up in the streets. A walk among the fallas of the Secció Especial, the largest, and those in neighborhoods such as Ruzafa and El Carmen. The Oferenda of flowers on March 17 and 18, and the floral mantle of the Virgin in the Plaza de la Virgen in the days after. The nighttime fireworks in the old Turia riverbed and the Nit del Foc. The ninot exhibition before the festival, where the public votes for the ninot that will be spared from the fire. The cremà on the night of March 19 at a neighborhood falla and, if possible, at the Plaça de l'Ajuntament, the last to burn. The Museu Faller, which preserves the pardoned ninots.
On the big days much of the center is closed to traffic and crowded; move on foot, by metro or by bicycle, and consult the official fallas map to plan a route through the neighborhoods. For the mascletà, arrive at the Plaça de l'Ajuntament well before the start or watch from nearby streets; the noise is very loud, and ear protection helps those not used to it, especially children. There are also balconies and terraces with views of the square that are booked in advance. The largest fallas draw lines at peak times; early morning and late night visits are usually calmer. For the cremà, choose a spot near a falla early. Wear comfortable shoes, clothes that may smell of gunpowder and a jacket for March nights.
Pumpkin buñuelos, light fried dough balls dipped in hot chocolate, are the sweets of the Fallas and appear at stalls throughout the city. Churros and porras round out breakfast or the early-morning snack. Many commissions cook giant paellas in the street for their members, and restaurants serve rice dishes like paella valenciana, with chicken and rabbit, and arroz al horno. To drink, chilled horchata de chufa is a city tradition.
Valencia receives many visitors during the Fallas, and rooms for March 15–19 sell out long in advance; book well ahead. Balconies for the mascletà and tables in central restaurants are also reserved early. Check the Valencia tourism site and the Junta Central Fallera for the year’s program, with the fallas map and the schedule of events.
In the city
Flavors of Spain
March
February/MarchAt the end of winter, between February and March, following the movable Carnival calendar: the contests and the queen’s gala take place in the preceding weeks, and the streets celebrate from the opening cavalcade until the weekend after Ash Wednesday.
The capital of Tenerife’s Carnival, in the Canary Islands, with a monumental fantasy queen, murgas, comparsas and rondallas, the big Coso parade on Carnival Tuesday and balls that fill the squares and avenues of the center until dawn.
March/AprilIn the week before Easter, from Palm Sunday to Resurrection, in March or April.
During Málaga’s Holy Week on the Costa del Sol, the brotherhoods carry enormous floats through the city center, borne on the shoulders of hundreds of porters, accompanied by marching bands, daytime and nighttime processions, and moments unique to the city, such as the Legion’s landing at the port on Holy Thursday.
March/AprilFrom Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, in March or April depending on the date of Easter; smaller processions begin on the previous Friday, Friday of Sorrows.
During Holy Week, the brotherhoods of Seville, the capital of Andalusia, carry images of Christ and the Virgin through the streets on gilded floats carried by costaleros and followed by long lines of penitents, on routes that pass by the cathedral day and night, until the early hours of Good Friday.
Your questions
From March 1 to 19, with the main days between March 15 and 19. The mascletà is held daily from the 1st; the monuments are installed on the night of March 15 to 16 and burned on the night of March 19, Saint Joseph’s Day.
It is a daytime gunpowder spectacle, made more to be heard than seen, with explosions in an increasing rhythm. During the Fallas it takes place every day from March 1 to 19 in the Plaça de l'Ajuntament.
It’s the burning of the monuments on the night of March 19. First the children’s fallas go up in flames and then the large ones; the one in the town hall square is the last. One adult ninot and one child ninot, chosen by the public, are spared from the fire.
It’s the procession of falleros and falleras in traditional dress on March 17 and 18, carrying flowers to the Virgin of the Forsaken. With those flowers a mantle is assembled on the image displayed in Plaza de la Virgen.
In the city center or near a metro station, so you can walk between the fallas without relying on a car. Since demand is high in March, book accommodation months in advance.
Festivals and events in Spain
JanuaryOn January 20, the feast day of Saint Sebastian, the city's patron: the celebration begins at midnight between January 19 and 20 and ends at the following midnight.
For 24 hours on January 20, San Sebastián, in the Basque Country, honors its patron saint to the sound of drums and barrels: uniformed companies parade through the city playing the marches of Raimundo Sarriegi, from the raising of the flag in Plaza de la Constitución until the lowering in the same square.
MayIn the first weeks of May, for about two weeks, after the Cruces de Mayo at the start of the month; the dates are set each year by the city council.
In May, residents of Córdoba in Andalusia open the patios of their homes—filled with pots of flowers—to the public in a municipal contest that has existed since 1921 and is on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage; it takes place during the month of the Cruces de Mayo, the flowered balconies and the city fair.
MayAround May 15, the day of Saint Isidro Labrador, patron saint of Madrid; the program lasts about a week before and after the date.
Madrid’s patron saint festivities around May 15: Madrileños dressed as chulapos dance the chotis, have picnics on the Pradera de San Isidro, drink water from the hermitage’s spring and eat rosquillas, with concerts and traditional events in the Plaza Mayor, Las Vistillas and neighborhoods.
