'Fallas' festival to take place in September, 'Covid permitting'
Wednesday, May 12, 2021 @ 12:48 PM
ALL IS NOT lost for this year's huge Fallas festival in the Comunidad Valenciana – they will merely take place six months late.
Representatives of the eastern region's biggest annual fiesta met with the Valencian government this week, and agreed the Fallas would go ahead between September 1 and 5, 'Covid permitting'.
By then, it is hoped most of Spain's regions will be on track with their plan of having at least 70% of their headcount vaccinated, and the Comunidad Valenciana calculates it could be onto low-risk residents in their 40s or even 30s by early September.
Also, if the festival is held in the first week of that month, children and teens would not yet have gone back to school and would be able to take part in the Fallas in full.
Some changes will, of course, be made, the regional government says.
Focusing on Valencia city – arguably the 'Falla capital', although not the only part of the region where they are celebrated – fiesta organisers are considering erecting the fallas, or colourful, house-sized papier mâché caricatures, on August 31; this setting-up session is known as the plantà.
A socially distanced prizegiving has been agreed to, since it is this competitive element that gives the 'edge' to the fiestas, determining which of the fallas are the favourites, and dictating the order in which they are set light to.
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