EVENTS AND VENUES DURING THE FALLERA WEEK
The most important days of the Fallas Festival are the world famous 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th of March, although the Fallas for the falleros are 365 days a year.
The central days of the month of March are the days when the activities for which they have been preparing during the year take place.
The PLANTÀ
One of the most delicate and exciting moments. Throughout the night of the 15th and until the early hours of the 16th, the Fallas artists, with the help of each commission, build their monuments. It is a night of great emotion as the next day the juries will pass by to evaluate them.
The Fallas are divided into sections; special, the largest, first, second, third and fourth. The larger monuments usually start to be “planted” more days in advance due to the technical difficulty.
The monuments arrive at their location in sections and are transported by flatbed lorries. The use of cranes to lift the pieces and fit them together is fundamental nowadays; there are fallas that reach up to 30 metres in height. Tonight is when the fallas artists put the final touches and finish the monument, normally this lasts until well into the morning of the 16th, always before the juries pass by.
The assembly first requires protecting the area with sand, and on top of this the elements are placed, which are held in place with sandbags placed on the internal wooden frame. From the base, the height increases towards the centre and the sides are completed with smaller scenes with the corresponding explanatory signs.
The children’s falla is not so complex, and can even arrive fully assembled.
The evolution towards the monumentality of the fallas has meant that the plantà al tombe, the traditional way in which the elements were raised by the brute force of the falleros and with the help of pulleys and ropes, has practically been lost.
The artists from Gandía, the Colomina brothers, assembling and fitting the parts of a Falla
the parades
The Fallas festival has many aspects that make it unique, one of them being that it is spread all over the city. Practically in every neighbourhood there is a commission, the falleros prepare every morning and some afternoons of the days of fallas parades in which, accompanied by their music band, they parade through the streets of the neighbourhood in a festive way.
It is one of the most exciting moments, the falleros and above all the falleras, come out of their houses with their traditional dresses impeccable so that everyone can see them walking through the streets normally paired up and dancing.
Parade in Gandia with the music band behind
Despertà
Gunpowder is omnipresent in Fallas. Every morning, usually at 8 o’clock, the falleros and falleras go around their neighbourhoods launching rockets of quite a respectable power. This is the moment to wake up the neighbourhood and continue with the fiesta.
Today this act has been highly regulated, any participant has to adopt specific safety measures and has to have a certificate which is obtained by means of a course given at the Museu Faller.
The Fallas Federation of Gandia organises a macrodespertà with a massive participation that goes through the streets of the city centre. It usually takes place the weekend before the 16th of March.
It is one of the most spectacular events and attracts the most tourists along with the cremà and the mascletà.
Falleras of Gandia launching rockets in the macrodespertà of 2018
THE mascletà
We come to the event that is organised on the days of fallas with the largest influx of people together with the night of the cremà. In Gandia, from the 15th to the 19th of March, a mascletà is fired every day in front of the railway station (sometimes it has moved to the Grau maritime district). The crowd attends religiously and huddles around the security perimeter waiting for 14:00 on the dot. At this moment the Falleras Mayores de Gandia say the well-known phrase: Senyor pirotècnic pot començar la mascletà.
A series of explosive devices placed in an orderly and articulated way so that, with a constant rhythm, the composition increases in intensity and starts to explode in a chaotic way, but which is absolutely controlled by the pyrotechnician. The mascletà normally consists of three parts, a first aerial part with whistlers and cane rockets, a second one on the ground and finally a final part with shells that links up with the final ground part in a kind of final earthquake that has the aim of reaching catharsis.
It is one of the elements that make up the Fallas with the oldest tradition; one hypothesis is that its precedents go back to the battle of Almansa (1707) and the closure of the gunpowder magazine in which the defeated soldiers, supporters of Charles of Austria, were armed. These workers were left with cannons that were used in some towns to fire gunpowder to celebrate a rite or festivity. These devices, called trancas, gave rise to the Valencian traca, which has evolved into what we know today as the mascletà.
Photo Miquel Pérez, Infofalles.
The fallero Baptism
Originally from Gandia, its roots go back to the time of the Republic. A fallera commission, in a burlesque and festive way, used the sacramental act of baptism with a falla ninot. The aim was the falla’s scathing criticism of the church, so questioned during the republican period. This act was used in a 180-degree turn after the civil war.
In 1943, the child born closest to the celebration of San José was baptised, a large procession was prepared and the participants ranged from the notary to the mayor. Today it is celebrated on the 16th of March in the afternoon and the Fallera Mayor and the Mayoress or Mayoress sponsor the newborn child. It takes place in the Sant Josep church with a large crowd present.
The act of baptism is a unique and singular characteristic of the Fallas of Gandia as it is not carried out in any other Fallas town.
Baptism in the Fallas of 2013. Photo: Juantxo Ribes. Las Provincias.
Awards
It is held on the afternoon of 16th March, after the baptism, tourists, citizens, falleras, falleros… move to the town hall square. Filled to overflowing the Junta Local Fallera, representatives of the 23 commissions, are awarding the prizes in all categories. There is a large number of awards not only for the monuments, but also for: floats, card championships, children’s music festival, llibrets…. The joy and emotion overflows when the name of each commission and the prize is announced over the loudspeaker.
The crowded square is a huge pressure cooker, constantly bursting with joy.
The Fallas queens of each commission, together with the president, are in charge of going up to the stage and collecting the pennant (name of the award).
At the end each one of the commissions returns to their neighbourhood and the party continues with the music band walking the awards through the streets and squares, interacting with the whole neighbourhood, many neighbours come out to the street and applaud the falleras and falleros who, to the rhythm of the music band, show the awards.
This event has been celebrated since the formation of the Junta Local Fallera of Gandia (August 1946) and has been passing through different representative spaces of the city (Goya theatre, Royalty…, until nowadays, where the crowd makes impossible an enclosed space.
Photo: Àlex Oltra · Awards 2017
THE OFFERING
Possibly the longest event of the fallas days and the one in which most falleros and falleras take part. All the commissions make a route through the streets of the city until they reach the town hall square. There, the image of the Virgin Mary of the Desamparados awaits on the platform, the virgin to whom a floral mantle is made with the bouquets carried by the participants dressed in typical Fallas costumes. It usually lasts around 5 hours and takes place on the evening of the 18th and the number of people watching the parade is enormous.
A characteristic feature of Gandia’s offering is that it is a double offering. The commissions of the maritime district (Falla Grau and Sant Nicolau-Mosquit) hold their own floral parade on the morning of the 19th to make the offering to the Mare de Déu Blanqueta, patron saint of fishermen in this neighbourhood. There is a large number of people taking part and the maritime district is full of visitors on these dates.
Photo: Àlex Oltra · Falleras walking along the road to make the offering to the Virgin Mary
Saint Joseph procession
The Fallas festival comes to an end on the 19th of March. In the afternoon the procession of San José takes place in honour of the patron saint of carpenters and the Fallas festival. Once again, the fallas of Gandia are unique in the city, with 21 commissions taking part in this event, and the other two from the maritime district carry out the procession in their neighbourhoods.
The falleros and falleras parade in an orderly fashion, in processional mode and normally with white candles, with the music band playing sacred songs. The traditional fallera dress is accompanied, in the case of the women, by a tile and a mantilla to give solemnity to the act, which is carried out in silence.
It is a harbinger of what is to come when night falls. The falleros and falleras gather in their commissions once the procession is over and prepare for the culminating moment of the Fallas festival.
Photo: Vicent Just · Moment of the Procession of St. Joseph in 2014.
THE cremà
On the evening of the 19th (nit de la cremà), Gandia becomes a kind of continuous and generalised ritual in which every neighbourhood participates, the 46 monuments of the city are burnt (23 adults and 23 children’s monuments). The city council dictates a timetable for the burning of each Falla which can only be complied with if all the safety devices (fire brigade, civil protection…) are in place. Normally the timetable is adhered to with little margin for error.
The children’s monuments begin to burn and after them, the major Fallas begin to burn, leaving the winning monument for last.
The preparation of the cremà of each falla is unique and in some cases highly complex. Normally, a few falleros (almost always the same ones, guardians of the techniques generation after generation) are in charge of the whole process.
The monument has to be arranged so that the burning takes place safely and attractively, from the center to the sides. In addition, many fallas are located in narrow places very close to the side buildings. Safety is paramount, the falleros have to protect the facades and also firefighters are responsible for cooling by throwing water everything that is close to the flames.
Photo: Àlex Oltra · Cremà 2016