Community Spirit, March 2018

THINGS TO DO
Las Fallas Festival - Valencia is an explosive city!
Exclusive interview with Darren Bishop, pyrotechnics
expert living in Russafa, Valencia
Valencia is full of wonderful traditions. The most explosive
one is known as Las Fallas. It is a celebration for the
commemoration of Saint Joseph as well as the celebration
marking the beginning of the Spring equinox. The festival
culminates from 14th to 19th March each year when you will
see them let off lots of fireworks and burn massive
monuments called ‘falla’, which have taken the whole year to
design, construct and paint! Sounds crazy? Yes, it is!!
So I thought that it would be interesting for our readers to get
to see a different perspective of this amazing festival, so I was
very happy when I got the opportunity to meet with Darren
Bishop, an expat living in the Russafa area of Valencia, who
happens to be an expert in pyrotechnics. What is amazing is
that the festival actually goes on all year!
THE INTERVIEW
Richard: “How is the festival organised?”
Darren: “Each committee work from their ‘casal’, as they are
known. The casal, meaning home, is their base. This is where
all the planning and fundraising takes place for the individual
casal. Casal’s are broken down into streets, and/or sectors
(neighbourhoods). You will see these scattered around
various streets”.
Richard: “What is a casal?”
Darren: “A casal is their base, there are over 800 of them in
Valencia and surrounding neighbourhoods so it is nearly
every street. The base depends on their own fundraising to
put on extra effects like street lights or parties but is mainly
paid for by the commission".
Richard: “So, every street has its own firework display?”