Las Fallas

Las Fallas is Valencia's wild, world-famous spring festival, culminating each year on 19 March, the feast of Saint Joseph. For days the city is given over to the fallas themselves: enormous, intricately built sculptures of papier-mache and wood, often satirical and startlingly detailed, erected on street corners across Valencia. Each neighbourhood spends the year, and a small fortune, crafting its monument, and they can tower several storeys high.

The festival is a full assault on the senses. Every day at 2pm the mascleta fills the Placa de l'Ajuntament with a thunderous, rhythmic barrage of firecrackers you feel in your chest more than hear. Bands parade, flowers are heaped into a giant offering to the Virgin, and nightly fireworks light the sky. It all builds to La Crema on the final night, when the sculptures are packed with pyrotechnics and set ablaze one by one, the whole city glowing with bonfires until only ashes remain.

Survival tips

Come prepared for noise, as the firecrackers are relentless, so bring ear protection, especially for children. The city is extremely crowded in the final days; book accommodation far in advance and expect to walk everywhere, as streets close and the metro is the fastest way around. For the mascleta, stake out a spot in the central plaza well before 2pm. On the night of La Crema, follow the crowds to see a few fallas burn, keep back from the barriers, and dress for warmth once the fires die down.

Fly into Valencia Airport (VLC), about 8 km west of the centre. Metro lines 3 and 5 run directly from the airport into the city, reaching Xativa and Colon in around 25 minutes, steps from the Placa de l'Ajuntament, the festival's epicentre. Las Fallas takes over the entire city, with sculptures on street corners citywide, so much is walkable. Roads close for the daily mascleta firecracker display and the final Nit de la Crema, when the monuments burn, so rely on the metro and your feet.

• Before you go, read the UK government's FCDO travel advice for Spain (entry requirements, safety and local laws).
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