Fallas may take place in July, say Valencia regional authorities
Thursday, March 12, 2020 @ 3:20 PM
VALENCIA'S huge March Fallas festival may take place over the same dates – but in July, according to initial proposals by the regional government.
As yet, nothing has been confirmed, but the massive fiesta which takes over the city for a week until March 19 is such a deeply-rooted part of the region's culture and is such an enormous source of income that those involved are unlikely to let the matter drop until they know they will be able to celebrate it at some point in 2020.
Gigantic papier mâché statues the height of a four- or five-storey block of flats, featuring caricatures of politicians and celebrities and satirising current affairs, each with its own marquée or casal where the falleras and falleros, or fiesta club members, eat, drink and party around the clock dressed in traditional regional costume for the best part of a week, and daily gunpowder banger displays or mascletaes giving off clouds of coloured smoke, all bring in tourists from across the country and even from around the world.
Not as well-known globally as Sevilla's Feria de Abril, or 'April Fair', or the Semana Santa (Easter week) parades, nor even as famous as the Tomatina in Buñol just inland from Valencia, the Fallas nevertheless act as a major worldwide visitor magnet for those who know about them due to their lively, noisy and colourful nature.
Every year sees about €500-700 million pouring into Valencia city alone in the week leading up to the cremà (burning) of the fallas, or monuments, on the night of March 19.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com