In Valencia, close to 400 adult fallas have been planted, plus many other children, and each one has a cost that ranges from 255,000 euros, from the most expensive to several whose budget barely exceeds 2,000 euros. All, absolutely all, will burn next Sunday at the Nit de la Cremà. It is the tradition and no Falla can be left without being burnt down, in a ritual from which only a “ninot pardon” of an adult and a child falla are saved.
From this calculation, we must discount the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, which is paid for with the municipal budget and is out of competition. This year, for the first time, a woman (Marina Puche, belonging to a saga of fallas artists) has designed the “Valencian Cardioversion” falla, which with a budget of 217,300 euros and a height of 21 meters represents an immense heart that beats and it lights up with those natural, familiar, gastronomic or Mediterranean sensations and emotions that surround it. Mandatory stop at the “zero kilometer” of the Fallas.
The most expensive this year is that of the Convento Jerusalem-Mathematician Marzal, one of the nine failures of the Special Section, that is, they have a budget of more than 90,000 euros. The one in the Convent cost 255,000 euros this year and is by the artist Pere Baenas. With the title “For a Fistful of Euros” it pays homage to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights using the old West to satirize politicians and leaders with scathing criticism, all wrapped up in an endless volume of ninots of Indian chiefs and cowboys, horses and even a stagecoach suspended in the air.
Others from this section and with large budgets are Na Jornada, with 150,000 euros; Admiral Cadarso-Conde Altea, cone 140.00; Plaza del Pilar, with 170,000; Sueca-Literato Azorín, with 140,000, L’Antiga de Campanar, with 170,000; Exhibition-Micer Mascó, with 160,000 and Kingdom of Valencia-Duke of Calabria, with 92,000.
From there, sections are established according to the budget. In the First Section, for example, made up of 17 fallas, all of them must have a budget between 36,000 and 90,000 euros. This is how all the faults are grouped by sections and budget. The humblest, those of the Eighth Section, all have a budget between 2,000 and 2,800 euros. The same happens with children, also with budgets of more than 20,000 euros in the most expensive to between 900 and 1000 euros in the cheapest. The City Council bears part of the cost of each of these failures, a solution that has allowed it to continue to maintain a minimum presence in the commissions with fewer resources.
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