Carlos Bazarra
València (EFE) about 770 fallas that from this Thursday look complete throughout the city of Valencia.
After a night of the “plantà” without last-minute surprises, beyond some commissions -especially from the metropolitan area of the city- that have remained composed and without fail, Valencia has woken up with all its monuments ready to be admired, analyzed and photographed by the tens of thousands of tourists who walk its streets in a spring atmosphere and not so hot anymore.
Once all the artistic cards of the fallas have been turned face up -the most critical ninots are usually installed at the last moment and are the ones that surround the figures or main groups of each monument-, the public is already looking, beyond contemplation of the large volumes of the most spectacular fallas (the nine in the Special section plus the municipal one in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento), the recognizable faces of the real world.
Pedro Sánchez, Shakira with Bizarrap, Vladimir Putin, Belén Esteban, Yolanda Díaz, Gabriel Rufián, Juan Carlos I, Donald Trump, Joan Ribó, Xi Jinping, Peter Lim, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, Ximo Puig, Isabel II, Isabel Díaz Ayuso , Pablo Echenique or Pere Aragonés are some of the “famous” faces that, in all kinds of positions and situations, have been immortalized in some of this year’s fallas and that, as tradition dictates, will burn on the 19th.
One of the actors in that real world is the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has been in Valencia for almost 24 hours -he was already last year, when he was a candidate to preside over the party- and has been able to visit several Fallas, share lunches with the world of fallas and be filled with the “optimism” that, he assures, dominates the festival this year.
Feijóo has been able to enjoy from the town hall balcony, like the actor Miguel Ángel Silvestre, the mascletà at two in the afternoon in a Town Hall square where, with the prevailing good weather, there is no longer room for a pin and that, in the center, It already dominates the immense heart that Marina Puche and Manolo García have designed and built for the municipal falla, out of competition.
It will be precisely in a few hours when the verdict of the jury is known, which has been going through all the “big” faults planted, and that this Wednesday already announced that the best children’s of 2023, in the Special section, is that of the Jerusalem Convent, a commission on a roll that could do a double if his “For a handful of euros” achieves the highest number of votes.
Other suffrages, those of the public that has spent a month and a half at the Ninot Exhibition -in the Science Museum-, have pardoned from the fire two sets of figures of Almirante Cadarso (children) and L’Antiga de Campanar (large) in a show that also breaks a record this year: 108,000 visitors.
All this in a meteorological environment where the forecasts confirm the great general expectations of these Fallas, which will conclude this weekend without “any shock”, with maximum temperatures close to 20 degrees and light wind, and although there is a low probability that If it rains on Saturday afternoon, they will most likely end without precipitation.
In this way, they would be the first Fallas without rain since 2017, since in addition to those of last 2022, and those of the week that must have been Fallas of 2020 and 2021 (which were suspended and postponed to September, respectively, due to the pandemic), they were also rainy, cold and unpleasant.
IMPROVE FORECASTS FOR HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
In addition, the hotel occupancy forecast of 86.5% for the nights of March 17 and 18 is 3.5 percentage points higher than that registered in 2022, and the average price of the stay stands at 266.65 euros; Regarding hotel occupancy for the entire week of Fallas, from March 13 to 19, the forecast is already close to 73%.
And the bars and restaurants of Valencia have very positive forecasts for the week of Fallas, which, as a novelty this year, will last until the night of March 19 in the dinner activity. Traditionally, the night of the cremà was the weakest of all the Fallas for the hotel industry, since most of the tourists have already left and the potential local public is “collecting” after many days of consumption away from home.
Since the beginning of March, many businesses have been receiving a high number of reservations for this week and, according to a survey by the Valencia Hospitality Federation among associated companies, 70% thought at the beginning of the month of an improvement in the figures compared to the Fallas of 2022 and in some profitable parties for their activity.
But there are also protests: the Confederació del Comerç d’Alacant, Castelló i València (Confecomerç) has asked for greater control to avoid the saturation of stalls and street markets during the Fallas and to guarantee accessibility to shops, to maintain the image of an “attractive and welcoming” city.