Fallas

 Fallas is the week-long Valencian celebration of St Joseph. A vibrant, noisy festival, complete with early morning fire crackers, late night fireworks and incredible statues.

It celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It incorporates fathers day and is truly a sight to behold.

To add to the melee, there is also the madness of St Patricks day celebrations in the middle of the festival, so the town is very busy with both locals and tourists. We stay away generally, but this year I decided I wanted to learn more about it and see what it involves.

The week begins with early morning fireworks (think 6am). This sets the scene for the week. There's flower parades,  special services for St Joseph and to honour him as a carpenter, incredible huge wooden cartoon structures are built  - the Fallas (fools), and they are surrounded by puppets (ninots).

Here in Benidorm there are three areas they are displayed at for the week. Old Town, midway between the old and new town areas and the Rincon area (near the end of the new town area).

I picked the last possible day to visit the Fallas, in the hope it would be less busy. I walked miles, but it was totally worth it. Local women gathered, wearing their traditional costumes for the parade, but most people were just walking by, obviously having seen the statues already during the week they were on display.

As you can see the Fallas are enormous, full of colour, satire and exquisitely built - they must take 100’s of hours of skilled work. They are designed to reflect cultural and political themes of the current year.

The Old Town, the Fallas was situated next to a small street fair, replete with children's rides and hot Churros stands.  There was a teenager lounging in a chair, a unicorn, a woman with an empty shopping bag and a fight. I didn't quite get the meaning of any of it - probably just me!

Mid town ( not far from the harbour) the Fallas sat outside a hotel, just in the middle of the road, depicting the nautical and fishing history of Benidorm.

Beside it, the Children's Fallas was super cute. 

New Town took its theme from the well renowned ‘Strip’ here. Cabaret with fun and naughtiness in abundance. Did you spot the not so subtle dig at a very unpopular political figure here in Spain?

I loved seeing these, they had so much detail, it was hard to take it all in, and hard to believe, they are all now ashes.

On the final day, locals in traditional dress parade through the streets, and just before midnight it's time for La Crema when the Fallas are burnt as part of a huge street party.

We didn't make it to La Crema. Maybe next year?