Carlos Bazarra | Valencia, Mar 19 (EFE).- The Fallas de València that end this Sunday leave the following clues:
1.- Massive Fallas
The forecasts were fulfilled: they have been one of the most massive Fallas in memory. Now without anticovid measures, with the big days falling on the weekend, with a reliable forecast of good weather and with Monday the 20th as a holiday in Madrid, the cocktail of good omens has stirred with a festive rhythm, a lot of optimism and the poster of “everything complete” in hotels, bars and restaurants. The mascletà on Saturday the 18th was the busiest in 20 years, just one example of the level of crowding in many of the massive events.
2.- Time was an ally, not an enemy
For the first time in years, no mascletà of the 19 o’clock pyrotechnic calendar in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento has been suspended due to rain or wind, no falla auction has fallen or been damaged by bad weather and no festive act has been held. to be suspended due to inclement weather. In 2023, the weather has reversed the dismal balance it left the previous year, when it caused the rainiest Fallas and the fewest hours of sunshine in history. In fact, the weekend before the big week left highs of 30 degrees and in the Malvarrosa it seemed like summer. Not done on purpose.
3.- Return to pre-pandemic normalcy
The coronavirus suspended the Fallas of 2020, postponed those of 2021 to September and still conditioned those of 2022 with various restrictions. This year, as all the anti-covid measures have decayed, the Fallas have breathed with all the desire in the world, living and enjoying all the details -festive, pyrotechnic or gastronomic- that the pandemic did not let them do for three years. Like, for example, crying without a mask when the bouquet is left at the feet of the Virgen de los Desamparados in the Offering, where more than 103,000 falleras and falleros have paraded this year, a record in the official census.
4.- The proximity of the elections
Four ministers (Irene Montero, José Luis Escrivá, Ione Belarra and Diana Morant), the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and national officials of all political colors have made it clear that some parties With this popular pull, they are a perfect setting for the regional and municipal electoral pre-campaign, without forgetting the general ones at the end of the year. The visit of Pedro Sánchez was also expected on Friday the 17th, but in the end the Prime Minister did not come from nearby Sagunto, where he participated in a business event with the king.
5.- Try to improve coexistence
The fallero side of 2023 asked that firecrackers not be thrown from three to five in the afternoon, not only for the nap -almost impossible in Fallas- but to let the dogs rest, who suffer from the endless explosions of all kinds and intensity as if they were in a war. It has been tried, now it will be necessary to see if that truce -for now not sanctioning- is established next year, just as it will be seen how to better plan the cleanup in the face of so much tourism and so much festival and that has left many, too many, graphic testimonies of dirt, bad smells, accumulated garbage and incivility.