22 March 2026

Oh my! What an incredible week!

Warning! This is a long blog post!

Every year Las Fallas gets bigger, crazier, and more extreme.

Fallas is the 19-day festival in Valencia that goes from March 1-19 every year. It includes hundreds of large monuments built in the streets by the local Fallas clubs, called “Cassels.” There are more than 400 such cassels across the region.

And there are daily Mascletás at 2:00 each afternoon in the city center, fireworks most nights, and many other events, some of which I’ll share here.

This year’s theme focused on peace and dialogue.

My friend Sue had arrived last Sunday to join the celebrations. It was with Sue that I first visited Valencia in October 2022.

And in addition to Fallas, we started the week celebrating Vicente’s birthday on Monday!

The three of us met for the daily Mascletá in the City Hall Plaza at 2:00 pm…an incredibly loud fireworks display. (More on the Mascletás later in this blog post). Then we went for traditional Valencia paella to celebrate the birthday boy.

That night, we went to dinner at a restaurant near my house. We brought the carrot cake I made last weekend. And we were joined by Sue’s friend Debra who was in town for Fallas.

And yes, I must say that the cake turned out really good!

That night, we all went to my roof top to watch the midnight fireworks.

Afterwards, we walked around, looking at Fallas monuments and enjoying the energy of the city.

A common theme this year kept appearing.

I think I can safely say that the American president is neither liked, nor respected by most people in Valencia.

We concluded the evening at 2:00 am.

One of the beautiful traditions of Fallas is the “Ofrenda,” the offering of flowers to the Virgin. Each of the more than 400 Cassels marches in traditional dress, bringing bouquets of flowers to a 3-story tall wooden statue of the Virgen de los Desamparados.

For two full days, these groups march through the city to present their flowers. Several times on Tuesday and Wednesday, walked past large groups of them.

By Thursday, the statue was fully clad in the flowers that had been presented over the previous two days.

On Tuesday, we continued celebrating Vicente’s birthday, and we went to the bull fights!

Now, I know how inhumane and cruel these events are. And I must say that by going with locals, we learned a lot about the art, beauty, and bravery of both the toreadors and the bulls.

Facing a 1300 pound bull is not for the faint of heart.

On Wednesday, Debra invited us to see the daily Mascletá from her hotel room. Her room was on the fourth floor, directly overlooking the City Hall Plaza. As much as I love the energy of being in the massive crowd, we had the perfect view.

Afterwards, we continued through the city to see more of the monuments. We were never able to get close to the Ofrenda where the flowers were presented and the floral dress was being assembled. The crowds were simply impassable!

Afterwards, Sue and I went home to take a siesta. If ever there was a week where siesta was needed, this was it!

That night, we went to see the final large midnight fireworks, which this time was near my house at the City of Arts and Sciences.

I keep referencing the crowds. But this was incredible. We got there two hours early, took some wine and potato chips and pushed our way to a great vantage point.

Fallas is all about fireworks, firecrackers, and fire. And Wednesday night was the final night of the large fireworks.

For two solid hours, all around us, people were lighting smaller fireworks.

When the show started, it lasted 18 minutes and used 1300 kgs (about 2900 lbs) of gunpowder.

Here are just a few snippets of it.

We made our way home through the crowds. And rested before the culmination on Thursday of the festival.

Thursday was the final day of Fallas. Sue and I slept a little later. Then we went to see a few of the Fallas monuments before they burned that night. Then, we met Debra at her hotel to see the last Mascletá.

Later, Debra joined us at my house to make empanadas! What a treat!

After dinner, we were joined by Vicente to see La Cremà…the burning of the monuments. It’s impossible to describe this evening in Valencia.

All 800+ monuments are burned…first the children’s monument, and then the large adult one. So from 9:00 until well after midnight, there are fireworks and giant fires on almost every other corner of the city. …along with the crowds to see them.

We made our way to see this one, one of the more expensive ones to build (almost 200,000€). The challenge was that it was nestled in a small square. So crowds approached it from every street but few could actually get into the square to see all of it.

Vicente (being smaller than me), pushed ahead and got around the corner and much closer. But the crowds adamantly refused to let Sue, Debra and me pass. So we got stuck! We couldn’t go forward. And we couldn’t go backwards.

I was next to a German lady who was furious with me for crowding her already crowded space. She pushed against me, stepped on my toes, snd grumbled. But I literally couldn’t budge. I just kept smiling, laughing and apologizing.

Standing there in the chaos, suddenly I heard my name shouted from above me. My friend Abby was in the second floor balcony!

She and her host (Marco) invited us up. The crowd all around us started saying, “Yes! We’re Jim’s friends too!” We all laughed. And Debra, Sue and I were allowed to pass to the apartment door!

Unfortunately, Vicente was way ahead of us and had to endure the crowd in his own.

And then it burned!

From there, we ran to get to the City Hall plaza and Debra’s hotel room to see the fireworks and burning of the large Charlie Chaplin monument that you saw at the beginning of this blog post. (Remember last Christmas when you started reading this post?!)

We had to force our way through giant crowds again, just to get to the hotel. (This time, we stayed close and held hands to stay together!) We couldn’t get to the front door. But we tapped on the window and a staff member let us in through the side door.

We rushed upstairs just as the fireworks were getting underway.

After the fires died down, we made our way home and slept.

Friday, Fallas was over. The streets were cleared. The city went back to normal as of nothing had ever happened.

Sue and I recreated our first moments in Valencia, nearly 3 years ago. We hired our motor cycle sidecar tour.

Then, we met Debra at the cathedral for some touring, that also included the Lonja de Seda and the Central Market.

That evening, Vicente arranged for us to take a boat ride on the Albufera, a lake and nature preserve outside of the city.

On Saturday, Debra took her flight back to the US. And Vicente hosted Sue and I at his family home in Benaguacil, where their orange trees are located.

We grilled, relaxed, and recovered from the craziness of the week.

After dinner, we walked to a coffee shop where Sue could try Cremaet, a local coffee, liquor and cinnamon treat.

It was a lovely way to wind down our exhausting, crazy, wild week.

Sue left this morning. My heart is full. Sue helped me discover Valencia three years ago. And now, it was a tremendous joy to share this city, the festival, and my life here with her.

You never know how a friend can help shape your life. Sue is a friend that I can never repay for her kindness and support. Thank you for making this journey and for sharing these memories.