The duration of the Fallas in Valencia is unfortunately not four days, as the headline says. The time in which the city is mortgaged for its main festival is approximately three weeks. Such nonsense is not seen in any other popular Spanish celebration. Can you imagine Seville or Pamplona collapsed for so long? Well no. It is difficult for any metropolis to accept, especially in the current tourist boom that Valencia is going through.
The historic center of the city is the one that comes out worst from this situation, but no neighborhood is spared, no matter how peripheral it may be. With the perspective of age I have seen the party evolve, and the paths it has taken in the last decade are, to say the least, worrying. I am simply going to list some of the inconveniences derived from the Failures:
Noise. The disturbances caused by ambient music and parties at night must be limited, guaranteeing rest for people who work the next day. What happens in Fallas is torture, according to the Geneva convention.
Although the hospitality industry does not complain, I consider myself its spokesperson. It is not acceptable to pay taxes, terraces, social security all year round… and in Fallas they plant a salchipapas stand at the door of your business, fuck-tracks, chiringomojitos, churrerías disguised as carabassera buñolerías, mobile ICUs with drippers of gintonics; street beer sellers during the mascletàs, who, so that the police don’t catch them, keep the beer cans in the garbage containers. As a Galician would say: “Take care of us.”
The City Council does what it can, and it can do nothing when it is overwhelmed in all its management areas. Regarding mobility I will only say that it is a total collapse; Maintaining cleanliness and hygiene on the street, even if they quadruple the number, is an impossible mission. Regarding the attacks on historical heritage, street furniture and trees, we will simply describe it as intolerable, as is not knowing how many illegal tourist apartments there are in the city. Historic center, Russafa, Cabanyal, Llano de Zaidía… No corner of València is spared, everything is covered. Do you know that we have had a case of balconing these Fallas? Yes, a 22-year-old young man fell from the ninth floor, at the intersection of Avd. del Oeste and Editor Manuel Aguilar Street. He is investigating whether the apartment had a tourist apartment license.
Plugging these black holes with the occasional random inspection, so that at least those who act outside the law think twice, for that, it would be necessary to double the staff of local police officers and officials.
The good falleros, of which there are some, may be offended by what I have written so far. Believe me, I’m not against partying. I am against what puts her in danger. It is true that there are commissions that respect and comply with the regulations of the Fallas side, and they attribute these inconveniences to the poor education of those who visit us. TRUE! The falleros do not pee on the wall of the Santos Juanes, nor in the Lonja, that is done by locals and tourists who come to have fun. When people go out they give everything, it is a consequence of the pandemic. Long live the festival, the bottle and the explosions! The dog kennels have been at one hundred percent occupancy. Our pets suffer, the neighbor on the sixth floor suffers, because he can’t sleep or get the car out of the garage. Too many bitchy people.
The falla, the monument, has been relegated to a second or third plane. The committees prefer to spend the money on tents, disco-mobiles and other activities. The glamour, aesthetics and feeling that exists in the Ofrenda, seems that with its mantle of flowers it hides everything bad. Well no, many shames remain exposed due to the generalized incivility of the population. Respect has been lost even for the fences of the falleros, no matter how many bridles they wear. Why do you think the Offering ended at 3:30 in the morning on the first day? Too many people in Valencia hindering the flow of commissions towards the Plaza de la Virgen.
If we have a city with the smell of fried food and urine, with the novelty of illegal backfire tourism, which turns the Turia Garden, the only haven of peace, into a Vietnam with burn injuries and the occasional amputee, that’s a bad thing. And if we are not aware of the shit we throw into the atmosphere at night, it means that something is failing on a collective level.
This is no longer a traditional festival, it is a major inconvenience for those who live in the city and unsustainable on an environmental level. The Fallero collective can help a mayor win an election, but if she does not adapt and work for coexistence, it can also contribute to losing them.
