Can't See Them All: The Fallas Figures Of 2018 We Visited
Let's make one thing clear upfront! The figures which you're about to see in this post no longer exist. They were ALL burned on March 19th, with the sole exception of the small ninot indultat, which won the popular vote of the Ninot Exhibition, and will be now displayed at the Fallas Museum in Valencia.
The origin of Fallas dates from the days when Valencians used wooden lanterns during the winter months. As spring rolled around, the lanterns were then burned. Valencians began adding to the bonfire, creating amusing figures out of old, unwanted furniture and household items. This fiery spring-cleaning has evolved into the construction of massive figures which use materials like Styrofoam and wood. The most expensive Fallas figure cost roughly €900,000, and was built for Nou Campanar in 2009. That was a little outrageous even by Valencian standards, and they've since put a cap on the maximum permitted price tag of a monument.
Above, you can see the Falla of Exposición-Miser Mascó, the monument which we chose to see go up in flames. We loved this one, with its hilarious wedding theme and screaming caricatures fighting for the bride's bouquet. Believe it or not, Exposición finished dead last in the sección especial of Fallas 2018.😱Crazy, but it just goes to show the amazing quality of all the monuments spread around the city. Anyway, we thought the cremà of Exposición's monument was perfect... you'll see it burning soon enough in one of our upcoming posts.
Nearly 800 figures were reduced to ashes in Valencia, during the cremà of Fallas 2018; an insane number which includes both the large figures, and the smaller Fallas Infantiles. And this festival isn't celebrated just within the city of Valencia, but throughout the entire Comunidad Valenciana. Even the smallest towns have at least one figure.
We'd have loved to be able to visit them all, but these monuments only exist for five short days. Below are photos of some of the best ones we were able to check out. Which one is your favorite?
Read all about Fallas on our Valencia Travel Blog!
Too bad @rebeccaontheroof , @jpphotography you couldn't see all this .... @albertoyago how was your Fallas? Alive?
![15 Fallas Figures 2018 DSC09470.jpg]
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These are incredible. If I ever make it to that part of the world, I'm gonna have to check this out. It looks absoloutely surreal.
HIGHLY Recommended! But if you do, book your accommodation way early otherwise you have to pay TONS!
Looking at the pictures took like 10 minutes LOL! If that took us 10 minutes just to look at; how long did it take you to find, admire, take a photo, repeat and do this post! They are all sooo good, it's hard to decide, but we did notice some looked the same in terms of artistic eye. Were a few of them created by the same artist or team of artists? Would you know?
Yes indeed ... some Fallas Artists do figures for different Fallas Commissions. So you recognize different artists just by looking at the art. Similar to street artists. It took us 5 days to just see a tiny fraction of the 800 figures. We made sure we walked by the ones in the categories Especial.
Ah, that explains it. Well, we are sure they are straight back at it. Creating Fallas for the next three years!
When you spread it over five days, it's not bad and you would have definitely stayed in shape walking all around Valencia. Keeping your fitness at the same levels as from your time in Lisbon. :)
So this is how they look when everything is put together, wow!
wow....so many smashing images!!I need to see this one day
And these images only cover a small fraction of all the figures in the city. Yes!! Come and see Fallas ... hope we're around too :)
Such a great festival in Valencia, I believe that you truly enjoy it. Too bad that all the figures are no more there, luckily you had snapped it with many attractive photos here. Thanks for sharing!
So true.. but they have to make room again for the Valencian City to function until next Fallas. They block almost all the traffic in the center. We maybe managed to see 100 figures out of the 800 total!
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So lovely, I hope to come here some day
It's the second biggest street festival after the Carnival in Rio! You have to see it one day!!!
800 figures turned to ashes </3 They make the place look like fairy tale land :)
They have to do that ... to make room for the next 800 next year :)
Amazing pictures, amazing place and awesome festivity @for91days :)
Our favorite festival!!! We love Valencia!
It is difficult to choose which is the best photo I was laughing at the parody of Cristiano Ronaldo This festival is definetely amazing :) :)
And silly me .... and the best thing of that picture is not even showing .... he was flipping everyone off! Hahah.