Fallas burn despite downpours: Fiesta end looked set to be a damp squib, but rain did not stop flames and fireworks
Friday, March 20, 2015 @ 11:26 AM
A WET and windy end to the Valencia region's fabulous Fallas festival failed to dampen participants' and spectators' spirits and, despite forecasts of torrential downpours on the crucial last night, the papier mâché statues were successfully burnt to the ground.
Known as the cremá, the monument-burning happens on the last night of the four-day fiesta, March 19, starting with the falla statue which came last in the line-up and ending with the winner.
Falla monuments this year satirised independent party Podemos and its leader, Pablo Iglesias, with his trademark ponytail, beard and lumberjack shirt, as well as the credit card expenses fraud scandal affecting top-flight bosses at the now-defunct Caja Madrid bank, the Royal family, former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, and politicians and business-owners linked to the massive Gürtel corruption case, among many other current affairs themes.
Two fallas in Valencia – the main and children's falla Félix Pizcueta monuments – burnt down by accident before time, since a spark from the smaller of the two ignited the main one.
Parts of some of the fallas blew down in the gale-force winds and, although Valencia city's famous Nit de Foc ('night of fire') went ahead without a hitch despite torrential rain, wet weather meant the flower-offering to the Virgin finished early and the torchlight procession was called off.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com