The fireworks displays and the fireworks prior to the Cremà have begun to write this Tuesday the epilogue of the festivities that end tonight (some will last until dawn) after several days of partying, music, donuts and mascletas. These festivities, in the absence of official data, indicate that there has been a massive influx of tourists and visitors. The mayor of València, María José Catalá, estimated this noon, before the thunderous mascletà, that the city has received “close to a million” visitors these days.
From 8:00 p.m., hundreds of monuments (in the city of Valencia alone there are more than 700 fallaes) burn under the watchful eye of 400 municipal firefighters; The last to burn is the Falla del Ayuntamiento at 11:00 p.m. The troops focus their attention on a hundred monuments considered at risk: located in small squares, with trees, homes or nearby monuments, or that have high or complicated finishes.
In fact, in the previous days the location of two monuments was changed and it was reported that firefighters would be very attentive to the fire in front of ventilated facades after the tragic event in the Campanar neighborhood.
With the Cremà the Fallas calendar comes to an end but not to the perennial debates that have accompanied the festivities for years. Despite the increase in the cleaning effort announced by the City Council -2.7 million in urban cleaning during the Fallas and a 71% reinforcement of the service staff- these days it has been possible to see unrewarding images of the city, converted, once again , in a large macro bottle at one of its points.
All in all, the mayor gave a positive assessment of the festivities this Tuesday. “We at the Valencia City Council are very happy with how these failures have gone, very satisfied with our commitment to cleanliness and safety. We have obviously detected issues that we will analyze and try to improve, but the truth is that I believe that “It is an important day because it is a day in which we finish the work and effort of an entire year,” said the mayor.
Among the aspects to improve, the mayor has pointed out the need to avoid alcohol consumption among minors and maintain cleanliness around the tents and monuments, along with her notifications to the Local Police when there are situations of insecurity. She has also expressed her concern about “the presence of an explosive material that has been introduced into the city in the last two years” by tourists, “which is not controlled” and “has caused some problems in the river area.”
The attraction of the party is an increasing attraction, and cleaning and security services are overwhelmed by the bad behavior of many. “This city has to start applying a tough hand against the uncivil,” declared Catalá.
This context has led the opposition to raise, again, the possibility of a tourist tax for tourists who visit the city these days. A way, PSPV and Compromís understand, for visitors to contribute to improving the safety and cleanliness of the city, in addition to the quality of the monuments.
And once again the debate about the smallholding of the Fallas (with so many small monuments scattered throughout the city) and the quality of some of the ninots is in the air. And all with some commissions that dedicate less and less money to the monument, forcing the Fallas artists to earn their wages in other activities. By the way, this year, the order of the awards granted to the Special Section has generated a lot of tension between the commissions.
But this has not been the only controversy this year. The delay in the Offering (the Fallera Mayor Infantil arrived three hours late) also forces us to rethink the schedules of one of the most emotional acts of “la millor festa del mon.”
