Fallas: The most colourful and spectacular festival on Earth

Every year, the Mediterranean city of Valencia becomes a living display of art, irony and humor during its most internationally known festival: las Fallas. Between the 15th and 19th of March, the streets become alive with fireworks, music bands, artistic lighting, street performances, parades... Originally intended as a tribute to St. Joseph, patron saint of the carpenters' guild, the basis of the fiesta is the "Fallas" monuments which are exhibited in the streets during this week. These fantastical effigy-like constructions fuse art and satire in a caricature-like critique of contemporary social and political life. On the last day, at midnight, all but one Fallas monument are burnt in immense, spectacularly beautiful pyres.

It is also a fiesta with a complex, well-tuned business and administrative structure: the Junta Central Fallera (or Fallas Central Board) which organizes all official events. Every monument is set up by an association called a "comisión fallera" (Fallas Committee), managed by its members, the "Falleros". During eachyear (which officially begins on March 20th and ends the following March 19th), they meet periodically to decide on the fiesta's main lines of action.
The total number of Falleros and Falleras now easily surpasses a hundred thousand people. In fact, though, the whole of Valencia takes part in the Fallas Festival, which has reached a high status in the city's social and cultural life.
Our recently refurbished Ayre Hotel Astoria Palace, located in the heart of Valencia, is the ideal place to stay this year during the celebration of the Fallas. If you book one of our new Upper Rooms before March 31st, breakfast will be included.