This was filmed by Enrico. It's about 10 minutes long, but he captures it all in that 10 minutes. The signal of la crema is the brief fireworks display to call everyone to the falla. After the fireworks they set off the traca (string of firecrackers)the traca (with the help of strategically placed bags of kerosene) ignites the falla.
You can see the firemen spraying down the buildings and anything else nearby that is not supposed to burn.
You'll also notice the anticipation before the big pieces fall. Plummeting balls of inferno always get a big reaction here.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Mascleta - Valencia, 2007
From March 1 to March 15 the Plaza Ayuntamiento plays host to the Mascleta.
The video camera's microphone doesn't pick up the sound or the vibrations to do it proper justice, but you get the idea.
In the end you'll notice as everyone rushes the pyrotechnician to congratulate him.
The video camera's microphone doesn't pick up the sound or the vibrations to do it proper justice, but you get the idea.
In the end you'll notice as everyone rushes the pyrotechnician to congratulate him.
Diary of an Honorary Fallero (self proclaimed) [abridged]
Part II
Sunday March 18, 2007
The one thing that can be said about Las Fallas, is that while they appear all inclusive, they’re really not. Fallas is a celebration for and by the falleros and falleras who make up fallereiens. These are groups of falleros from the same neighborhood or street that make up a sort of fallero gang. Many of the falleros are born into fallereien, but through marriages and conflicts they can split up and join with other groups. Traditionally falleros are members of the same groups as their parents, grandparents etc. These groups work all year long to get the money to pay for the Falla sculptures which can cost from 10’s of thousands of euros to 100’s of thousands of euros depending on how much money is raised. Now keep in mind they are also paying for their clothing, which for the women can cost hundreds to thousands of euros a piece. The clothing needs to be available for at least 15 days intermittently and 5 days straight, so they are looking at about 3 outfits per fallero y fallera. One way that they have discovered to making some of this money (outside assorted fundraisers, donations and as of recently corporate sponsorship) is to host verbenas or casals. These are parties hosted by each fallereien in honor of themselves and their work over the last year. Verbenas are giant street parties held outside with either a live band or a DJ. Casals are similar functions, but held within a garage or the falla base of operations (big reception type places). They make their money from these by setting up a bar and charging for drinks. Anyone and everyone is invited to the parties, but you’ll be buying your own drinks and they’re not cheap, unless you are invited.
We were invited to two verbenas in Carcaixent, one invitation from good friends in the Canovas group and the other from the St. Jaume 1er (St. James 1st). The Canovas verbena was huge and took up an entire city block. The live band of about 9 was rocking their thing pretty fierce. They played a mix of traditional Spanish and Valencian music, classic Spanish tunes from the 50’s and 60’s as well as contemporary jams. One of the four singers spoke English, so they got in some English tunes as well. The four singers, while maybe seemed like overkill, as it turned out were necessary. When one of these groups is hired to play a verbena, they are expected to perform from midnight until 4 in the morning every night from March 15 to March 19, that’s a hell of a set list and a hell of strain on a person’s voice. I’ve also been told that these guys make good money during this time (a career move I hadn’t before considered).
The party was kicking as old and young alike were partaking. The real little ones were dancing away in the hands of their mothers and fathers. The 5-12 year olds were away from the crowd blowing shit up. The early teenage girls were sulking in gender specific circles while secretly eyeballing the early teenage boys who were laughing hysterically every time one of them threw a firecracker in the vicinity of the girls. Those in the late teens to not quite retirement age were out on the dance floor (street) with drinks in hand and tearing it up. The post-retirees were either scolding their great-grandchildren for being pansies and not holding the firecracker longer before throwing it or scolding their grandchildren for being pansies and not getting that firecracker into the circle of girls and shaking things up a bit (On several occasions I have actually seen old ladies teaching young 5-10 years olds how to light and throw firecrackers…the bit about the taunting I just made up).
After the Canovas verbena we made our way to the St. Jaume verbena. This party was slightly more subdued than the other. The Canovas group had recently been awarded 1st place for their falla in the competition and was partying off their elation. The St. Jaume group didn’t seem terribly thrilled with the outcome of their falla sculpture, but they saw fit to proceed with the celebration. Where the Canovas crowd’s party was situated just off the main street, the St. Jaume verbena was tucked back a few blocks from the main plaza. Where the Canovas verbena had all ages involved, St. Jaume’s verbena was split by a Joven Casal nearby (young people’s casal…essentially an abandoned auto garage that was hosting a rave…well a Carcaixent rave anyway). The Canovas verbena had a tight live band that was giving everything they had to offer and the St. Jaume verbena had an early 30 something duo rocking out tunes on electronic drums and synthesizers (this isn’t to say that the St. Jaume wasn’t making the most of what they had available with their insistence that the well-endowed young blonde female portion of the duo, “unleash the beasts”. She never obliged, but seemed genuinely flattered by the persistent requests and did slip off her coat to prove it). By the end of the night however, St. Jaume did have one thing that Canovas did not…me. I was given a pin and named an honorary member (self-proclaimed) of the Fallareien Jaume 1er de Carcaixent. The pin says that exactly (except for the self-proclaimed bit) along the outside and on the inside is a blue sky with a gold dragon. Beneath the dragon is the shield and quiver of Carcaixent (the town’s symbol, Carcaixent literally means people of the quiver…quiver being the little pack that bow and arrow hunters would hold their arrows in…they were hunters apparently…or just fond of little packs that hold arrows in them. It was a long time ago). Surrounding the shield is fire or the “Honorary Fallero (self-proclaimed) Bad-Ass Rockin’ Flames of Hell” as I have lovingly dubbed it.
Monday March 19, 2007
Today is “La Nit de Foc” which translates from Valencian to “The Night of Fire”. Each pueblo or town usually has several fallas on display around town. On the night of March 19 starting usually between midnight and 12:30 they start burning them down (la crema) one by one in descending order of rank. It works out so that the 1st prize is the last one to burn. In order to signify which falla is burning and when, they are signaled by a 20 minute firework display. In smaller towns such as Carcaixent or Benimamet this 20 minutes gives you the time you need to start hoofing across town from falla to falla. In Benimamet where we are surrounded by Valencia, Paterna and Burjossot it is absolutely insane as I counted 9 fireworks displays going off at the same time in different parts of the night sky (Valencia being a bigger city and impossible to see them all so they do it by city sections). Each falla is made to burn and it is made to burn fast, so there are generally 20 – 30 minute intervals between each colorful explosion to where you can see giant balls of fire and smoke consuming various parts of each city to the faint or blaring (depending on where you are located) sounds of traditional Valencian anthems, until it dies down and 7-8 more fireworks displays ignite in different parts of the sky.
Benimamet’s crema will last an hour and a half or so, while Carcaixent’s will likely go until 3 in the morning. From Benimamet we don’t actually get to see the big fallas from the city burn, but we have the advantage of being up on our roof (which overlooks the horizon of Valencia to our east and the aforementioned cities on our north, west and south). There is one falla about a block behind our house. It has taken last place for the last two years (last year’s was an homage to Jules Verne and this year was an homage to the aging baby boomers). The beauty of this is that we can go down and watch it burn. When it burns down we can go up to our roof and watch everything else go simultaneously.
I have been trying to come up with how to describe Las Fallas since seeing it for the first time last year. I took loads of pictures only to be disappointed at how little they captured. The depth, the noise, the atmosphere, the colors, the smells…none of it was there. The notion of being so close to a fireworks display that you can smell the sulfur long after it’s over; The idea of being dwarfed by a night of fire and being able to see your shadow as it is snatched from roof top to roof top as the world erupts around you in celebration; None of these things can be captured with my little PowerShot digital camera. When having a few drinks with a Canadian couple on Thursday who were visiting Valencia for fallas (two of the 1,000,000) someone had asked them how they would describe this to their friends and family back home. His response was, “I’m not. I’m just going to tell them they have to see it for themselves.” I’ve been thinking a lot about that as I have been taking notes and writing all of this down. No matter how descriptive or eloquently I can try to put it, in reality I can’t. You’ll just have to be one of 1,000,000 next year and feel free to look me up, I’ve got an extra bed.
Sunday March 18, 2007
The one thing that can be said about Las Fallas, is that while they appear all inclusive, they’re really not. Fallas is a celebration for and by the falleros and falleras who make up fallereiens. These are groups of falleros from the same neighborhood or street that make up a sort of fallero gang. Many of the falleros are born into fallereien, but through marriages and conflicts they can split up and join with other groups. Traditionally falleros are members of the same groups as their parents, grandparents etc. These groups work all year long to get the money to pay for the Falla sculptures which can cost from 10’s of thousands of euros to 100’s of thousands of euros depending on how much money is raised. Now keep in mind they are also paying for their clothing, which for the women can cost hundreds to thousands of euros a piece. The clothing needs to be available for at least 15 days intermittently and 5 days straight, so they are looking at about 3 outfits per fallero y fallera. One way that they have discovered to making some of this money (outside assorted fundraisers, donations and as of recently corporate sponsorship) is to host verbenas or casals. These are parties hosted by each fallereien in honor of themselves and their work over the last year. Verbenas are giant street parties held outside with either a live band or a DJ. Casals are similar functions, but held within a garage or the falla base of operations (big reception type places). They make their money from these by setting up a bar and charging for drinks. Anyone and everyone is invited to the parties, but you’ll be buying your own drinks and they’re not cheap, unless you are invited.
We were invited to two verbenas in Carcaixent, one invitation from good friends in the Canovas group and the other from the St. Jaume 1er (St. James 1st). The Canovas verbena was huge and took up an entire city block. The live band of about 9 was rocking their thing pretty fierce. They played a mix of traditional Spanish and Valencian music, classic Spanish tunes from the 50’s and 60’s as well as contemporary jams. One of the four singers spoke English, so they got in some English tunes as well. The four singers, while maybe seemed like overkill, as it turned out were necessary. When one of these groups is hired to play a verbena, they are expected to perform from midnight until 4 in the morning every night from March 15 to March 19, that’s a hell of a set list and a hell of strain on a person’s voice. I’ve also been told that these guys make good money during this time (a career move I hadn’t before considered).
The party was kicking as old and young alike were partaking. The real little ones were dancing away in the hands of their mothers and fathers. The 5-12 year olds were away from the crowd blowing shit up. The early teenage girls were sulking in gender specific circles while secretly eyeballing the early teenage boys who were laughing hysterically every time one of them threw a firecracker in the vicinity of the girls. Those in the late teens to not quite retirement age were out on the dance floor (street) with drinks in hand and tearing it up. The post-retirees were either scolding their great-grandchildren for being pansies and not holding the firecracker longer before throwing it or scolding their grandchildren for being pansies and not getting that firecracker into the circle of girls and shaking things up a bit (On several occasions I have actually seen old ladies teaching young 5-10 years olds how to light and throw firecrackers…the bit about the taunting I just made up).
After the Canovas verbena we made our way to the St. Jaume verbena. This party was slightly more subdued than the other. The Canovas group had recently been awarded 1st place for their falla in the competition and was partying off their elation. The St. Jaume group didn’t seem terribly thrilled with the outcome of their falla sculpture, but they saw fit to proceed with the celebration. Where the Canovas crowd’s party was situated just off the main street, the St. Jaume verbena was tucked back a few blocks from the main plaza. Where the Canovas verbena had all ages involved, St. Jaume’s verbena was split by a Joven Casal nearby (young people’s casal…essentially an abandoned auto garage that was hosting a rave…well a Carcaixent rave anyway). The Canovas verbena had a tight live band that was giving everything they had to offer and the St. Jaume verbena had an early 30 something duo rocking out tunes on electronic drums and synthesizers (this isn’t to say that the St. Jaume wasn’t making the most of what they had available with their insistence that the well-endowed young blonde female portion of the duo, “unleash the beasts”. She never obliged, but seemed genuinely flattered by the persistent requests and did slip off her coat to prove it). By the end of the night however, St. Jaume did have one thing that Canovas did not…me. I was given a pin and named an honorary member (self-proclaimed) of the Fallareien Jaume 1er de Carcaixent. The pin says that exactly (except for the self-proclaimed bit) along the outside and on the inside is a blue sky with a gold dragon. Beneath the dragon is the shield and quiver of Carcaixent (the town’s symbol, Carcaixent literally means people of the quiver…quiver being the little pack that bow and arrow hunters would hold their arrows in…they were hunters apparently…or just fond of little packs that hold arrows in them. It was a long time ago). Surrounding the shield is fire or the “Honorary Fallero (self-proclaimed) Bad-Ass Rockin’ Flames of Hell” as I have lovingly dubbed it.
Monday March 19, 2007
Today is “La Nit de Foc” which translates from Valencian to “The Night of Fire”. Each pueblo or town usually has several fallas on display around town. On the night of March 19 starting usually between midnight and 12:30 they start burning them down (la crema) one by one in descending order of rank. It works out so that the 1st prize is the last one to burn. In order to signify which falla is burning and when, they are signaled by a 20 minute firework display. In smaller towns such as Carcaixent or Benimamet this 20 minutes gives you the time you need to start hoofing across town from falla to falla. In Benimamet where we are surrounded by Valencia, Paterna and Burjossot it is absolutely insane as I counted 9 fireworks displays going off at the same time in different parts of the night sky (Valencia being a bigger city and impossible to see them all so they do it by city sections). Each falla is made to burn and it is made to burn fast, so there are generally 20 – 30 minute intervals between each colorful explosion to where you can see giant balls of fire and smoke consuming various parts of each city to the faint or blaring (depending on where you are located) sounds of traditional Valencian anthems, until it dies down and 7-8 more fireworks displays ignite in different parts of the sky.
Benimamet’s crema will last an hour and a half or so, while Carcaixent’s will likely go until 3 in the morning. From Benimamet we don’t actually get to see the big fallas from the city burn, but we have the advantage of being up on our roof (which overlooks the horizon of Valencia to our east and the aforementioned cities on our north, west and south). There is one falla about a block behind our house. It has taken last place for the last two years (last year’s was an homage to Jules Verne and this year was an homage to the aging baby boomers). The beauty of this is that we can go down and watch it burn. When it burns down we can go up to our roof and watch everything else go simultaneously.
I have been trying to come up with how to describe Las Fallas since seeing it for the first time last year. I took loads of pictures only to be disappointed at how little they captured. The depth, the noise, the atmosphere, the colors, the smells…none of it was there. The notion of being so close to a fireworks display that you can smell the sulfur long after it’s over; The idea of being dwarfed by a night of fire and being able to see your shadow as it is snatched from roof top to roof top as the world erupts around you in celebration; None of these things can be captured with my little PowerShot digital camera. When having a few drinks with a Canadian couple on Thursday who were visiting Valencia for fallas (two of the 1,000,000) someone had asked them how they would describe this to their friends and family back home. His response was, “I’m not. I’m just going to tell them they have to see it for themselves.” I’ve been thinking a lot about that as I have been taking notes and writing all of this down. No matter how descriptive or eloquently I can try to put it, in reality I can’t. You’ll just have to be one of 1,000,000 next year and feel free to look me up, I’ve got an extra bed.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Diary of an Honorary Fallero (self proclaimed) [abridged]
Part I
Thursday March 15, 2007
While the firecrackers and mascleta have been going on since March 1, the official beginning to fallas was Thursday. The first of los castillos (the fireworks display) was held down in the riverbed. The fascinating thing about el castillo is that every night is a different pyrotechnician who will try to outdo what had been done previously. The first one to go on March 15 is the one who sets the bar as each successor will try to one up him and then the next guy and so forth.
Thursday night’s castillo relied heavily on masclets, these are sometimes called dry fireworks. This simply means that they are giant firecrackers that make a flashing pop, but don’t release a colorful display. This guy would send masclets up with the fireworks so that there was a mixture of noise and color.
We had located ourselves directly on the other side of the riverbed from where they were being fired off. It was amazing to watch as the night sky exploded right overhead. I could look directly up and watch as they showered down above me. It got a little unnerving when one cinder didn’t burn out on its way down and landed a few yards away from where we were standing. Marta at this point had the foresight to seek shelter underneath a nearby overhanging balcony, I was too caught up in the moment to have paid any attention. The display ended with an eruption of masclets that left my ears ringing and my stomach lurching.
The show lasted roughly 20 minutes. By 12.30 a group of us got comfortable in the corner of a little Irish pub in the neighborhood and commenced to the next few hours of drinking…so it began.
Friday March 16, 2007
I was startled awake at 8.00 in the morning by a loud explosion outside on the street below. Before I had time to put my head together another came from the other side of the house. These large explosions were followed by smaller ones and were soon layered upon with the sounds of horns blasting and drums beating, accompanying the chants and singing of a crowd moving through the streets. Below the foreground noise I could hear and feel a constant rumble. It was if I was sitting on volcano that was about to go off. The rumbling continued after the more localized noise had moved farther up the street and began to fade into the distance. The rumbling did not, it remained. I later realized that the foreground noise was the falleros of Benimamet as they moved through the town’s streets. The continuous rumbling that I felt below me, was the larger and more populated falleros of Valencia, Paterna and Burjossot surrounding me from every other direction. It took me too long to put all of this together. Justifiably, I had only been working on 3 hours of sleep, nor had the beverages from the night before properly worked their way through my system.
By the time we had been able to track down a cab that previous night we got home around 4.30 Friday morning. I was asleep by 5 and up again by 8. La Desperta had begun. “The Wake-up call” as it is translated, is exactly that. The falleros and falleras have a responsibility to wake everyone up on their way home at 8 in the morning. Depending on how many groups of falleros and falleras are in the area depends on how long La Desperta continues outside your bedroom window. Benimamet, thankfully, only has a half hour’s worth.
It is said that this tradition had was started by Franco. Valencia was a stronghold of Republican support, (the opposition to Franco) so during and after the Spanish Civil War, fallas, for obvious reasons, were not held. It wasn’t until several years later as Franco was trying to reunify the country that the festivities were being encouraged. However, Franco was also weary of any activity that seemed to promote Communitat over Country. Fallas belonging to Valencia and only Valencia was one such activity. His agreement to allow the celebration to go on was that everyone was expected to get up and go to work the next morning. No matter how late they had been out the night before, shops and businesses were to be open and ready the next morning. This is said to be the beginning of La Desperta.
Saturday March 17, 2007
I was woken again by La Desperta, this time on 3 ½ hour of sleep (getting older). This time however, I was only awake long enough to realize that it was happening and went right back to sleep.
To bring you up to date, I had mentioned in a previous post from February that I had been told to expect 1,000,000 more people in Valencia on top of the 800,000 that already live here. The grand total of 1,800,000 people in a city built for much less than half of that was a close proximate. According to recent numbers it was 1,000,000 foreigners that came to Valencia for fallas. That is 1,800,000 people made up of Valencianos and people who have flown in from other countries. This figure does not include the people that come from other parts of Spain: Madrid, Cataluna, Basque Country, Andalucia, Alicante, Castellon, etc. As stated earlier Valencia is the only part of Spain that has fallas. This year Castellon’s annual Magdelena festival happened to be on the same weekend, so that might have kept a few hundred people at bay, but not enough for any relief to the city. From Friday night onwards the city of Valencia was filled beyond any possible explanation.
photos taken from: http://www.levante-emv.co
Thursday March 15, 2007
While the firecrackers and mascleta have been going on since March 1, the official beginning to fallas was Thursday. The first of los castillos (the fireworks display) was held down in the riverbed. The fascinating thing about el castillo is that every night is a different pyrotechnician who will try to outdo what had been done previously. The first one to go on March 15 is the one who sets the bar as each successor will try to one up him and then the next guy and so forth.
Thursday night’s castillo relied heavily on masclets, these are sometimes called dry fireworks. This simply means that they are giant firecrackers that make a flashing pop, but don’t release a colorful display. This guy would send masclets up with the fireworks so that there was a mixture of noise and color.
We had located ourselves directly on the other side of the riverbed from where they were being fired off. It was amazing to watch as the night sky exploded right overhead. I could look directly up and watch as they showered down above me. It got a little unnerving when one cinder didn’t burn out on its way down and landed a few yards away from where we were standing. Marta at this point had the foresight to seek shelter underneath a nearby overhanging balcony, I was too caught up in the moment to have paid any attention. The display ended with an eruption of masclets that left my ears ringing and my stomach lurching.
The show lasted roughly 20 minutes. By 12.30 a group of us got comfortable in the corner of a little Irish pub in the neighborhood and commenced to the next few hours of drinking…so it began.
Friday March 16, 2007
I was startled awake at 8.00 in the morning by a loud explosion outside on the street below. Before I had time to put my head together another came from the other side of the house. These large explosions were followed by smaller ones and were soon layered upon with the sounds of horns blasting and drums beating, accompanying the chants and singing of a crowd moving through the streets. Below the foreground noise I could hear and feel a constant rumble. It was if I was sitting on volcano that was about to go off. The rumbling continued after the more localized noise had moved farther up the street and began to fade into the distance. The rumbling did not, it remained. I later realized that the foreground noise was the falleros of Benimamet as they moved through the town’s streets. The continuous rumbling that I felt below me, was the larger and more populated falleros of Valencia, Paterna and Burjossot surrounding me from every other direction. It took me too long to put all of this together. Justifiably, I had only been working on 3 hours of sleep, nor had the beverages from the night before properly worked their way through my system.
By the time we had been able to track down a cab that previous night we got home around 4.30 Friday morning. I was asleep by 5 and up again by 8. La Desperta had begun. “The Wake-up call” as it is translated, is exactly that. The falleros and falleras have a responsibility to wake everyone up on their way home at 8 in the morning. Depending on how many groups of falleros and falleras are in the area depends on how long La Desperta continues outside your bedroom window. Benimamet, thankfully, only has a half hour’s worth.
It is said that this tradition had was started by Franco. Valencia was a stronghold of Republican support, (the opposition to Franco) so during and after the Spanish Civil War, fallas, for obvious reasons, were not held. It wasn’t until several years later as Franco was trying to reunify the country that the festivities were being encouraged. However, Franco was also weary of any activity that seemed to promote Communitat over Country. Fallas belonging to Valencia and only Valencia was one such activity. His agreement to allow the celebration to go on was that everyone was expected to get up and go to work the next morning. No matter how late they had been out the night before, shops and businesses were to be open and ready the next morning. This is said to be the beginning of La Desperta.
Saturday March 17, 2007
I was woken again by La Desperta, this time on 3 ½ hour of sleep (getting older). This time however, I was only awake long enough to realize that it was happening and went right back to sleep.
To bring you up to date, I had mentioned in a previous post from February that I had been told to expect 1,000,000 more people in Valencia on top of the 800,000 that already live here. The grand total of 1,800,000 people in a city built for much less than half of that was a close proximate. According to recent numbers it was 1,000,000 foreigners that came to Valencia for fallas. That is 1,800,000 people made up of Valencianos and people who have flown in from other countries. This figure does not include the people that come from other parts of Spain: Madrid, Cataluna, Basque Country, Andalucia, Alicante, Castellon, etc. As stated earlier Valencia is the only part of Spain that has fallas. This year Castellon’s annual Magdelena festival happened to be on the same weekend, so that might have kept a few hundred people at bay, but not enough for any relief to the city. From Friday night onwards the city of Valencia was filled beyond any possible explanation.
photos taken from: http://www.levante-emv.co
Monday, March 12, 2007
Cafe Infinito
Congratulations to Frankie who, after years of slaving it away for the man, became his own boss and opened Cafe Infinito on Sunday March 11, 2007.
Cafe Infinito
calle poeta Mas y Ros 35 bajo,
Valencia 4602,
España
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