Las Fallas is Valencia's biggest festival, and thousands of people come here for it every year. Huge sculptures on the squares, solemn processions with music, fireworks, discos and parties. It's probably worth experiencing at least once in a lifetime — like the Venice carnival or the carnival in Brazil.
Valencians keep their festivals alive and growing, to their own delight and everyone else's. Thanks to that devotion to tradition, Las Fallas was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016.
When Las Fallas takes place
Las Fallas lasts 19 days, from 1 to 19 March, and every one of those days at two in the afternoon the mascletà takes place on City Hall Square — a pyrotechnic show I'll describe below. Stalls selling doughnuts open around the city, festive lights go up in the streets, and towards mid-March the parts of the future street sculptures start to arrive.
The main days are 15–19 March, so plan your trip for those dates if you want to see everything: the figures, the offering of flowers to the Virgin and the burning on the last night.
Where the festival comes from
Put very simply, Las Fallas is a kind of Shrovetide on a huge scale. The idea is the same, at any rate: see off winter, welcome spring, burn the old. The festival has pagan roots and was later tied to the feast of Saint Joseph, patron of carpenters, on 19 March.
It all began with the carpenters. After winter they cleared out their workshops and carried offcuts, unwanted things and the wooden stands that held their lamps out into the street. As the days grew longer and they could work by daylight, the stands were burned along with the rest of the junk.
In the 18th century people began shaping these structures into rough dolls and dressing them in old clothes — and you could often recognise the neighbours in them. Gradually the separate dolls grew into whole scenes poking fun at local ways and human failings, and so the falla was born: a sculptural composition with its own story and a satirical edge.
As the figures grew more elaborate, their makers began to compete: in 1885 the magazine La Traca started giving prizes for the best works, and in 1901 the city council set up its own awards. In the 20th century city-wide ceremonies, flower processions and big pyrotechnic shows joined the figures and bonfires.
Who organises it all
Most of the festival is prepared by residents themselves, who join together in commissions. Their members are called falleros and falleras, and they are the ones who raise the money (on average €50 per person a month), commission the figures from artists and organise lunches, children's parties and evening events.
Each commission has its own premises — the casal — where members meet all year: they plan, celebrate and simply spend time together. Several generations of a family often belong to the same commission, so both adults and children come here. When Las Fallas arrives, a big marquee goes up in the street for shared lunches, dinners and other events.
In 2026 the Central Fallas Committee's register listed more than 128,000 people — members of commissions in Valencia and some neighbouring towns. So when you see a huge figure in the street, a falla, you know there's a whole group of people behind it who raised the money and prepared for the festival all year.
The city council takes part too: it pays for the municipal falla on City Hall Square, supports the commissions and organises the city services, while the overall programme is drawn up by the Central Fallas Committee.
Who the fallera mayor is
She is the leading fallera of each commission — and there are always two: a grown woman and a girl. They represent their commission at city-wide events. Becoming fallera mayor is a great honour that people aspire to for years, even though the role brings many obligations for the whole year, financial ones included.
Separately, two leading falleras are chosen for the whole of Valencia. They open the festival, take part in every ceremony and event, work with the mayor and meet representatives of other cities, and after the festival they often carry out official duties, so there's plenty to do all year.
Choosing the city's leading falleras takes several months: the candidates go through interviews and joint events, while the jury looks at how well they know the traditions and how they speak and carry themselves in front of the public and the press. Thirteen women and thirteen girls reach the final; from each group one is chosen as the leading fallera, and the other twelve join her court of honour.
The winner learns the news by phone, when the mayor calls her personally — a moment known as the telefonada. She waits for the call with her family and her commission, and you can follow it live.
The falleras' costumes
The falleras' costumes are worth studying in detail: full patterned skirts, fitted bodices, lace aprons and shawls, shoes to match the dress, jewellery and combs in elaborate hairstyles. Men wear traditional dress too — waistcoats, sashes and scarves.
All of this is expensive: the main fabric for a woman's dress alone can take about seven metres, plus lining, trimmings and the tailor's work. Then come petticoats, shoes, jewellery and accessories, and after that hair, make-up and dry cleaning.
For example, a full outfit in synthetic fabric can cost more than €2,600, and one in silk from €7,000 — and a fallera often has several. So not everyone buys new each time: dresses are altered, bought second-hand, worn for many years and handed down in the family together with the jewellery.
Especially prized is espolín — handwoven silk whose pattern is created right on the loom, with coloured threads fed in by small shuttles. One well-known maker is Garín in Moncada, which has produced such fabrics since the 19th century.
What to see and do at Las Fallas
Look at the figures
The falla is the whole sculptural composition; each individual figure in it or beside it is a ninot. Around 700–800 large and children's fallas go up across Valencia, filling squares, junctions and small streets, so on any walk you keep discovering something new.
Today the figures are mostly made of polystyrene on a wooden frame, though there is a group of “experimental” fallas made from eco-friendly materials. Artists and workshops spend months on the figures. The finished parts are then brought to the site and assembled with cranes — this is called the plantà, and it's fascinating to watch too.
Every falla has its own theme: politics, money, local habits, social problems, and sometimes culture or even philosophy. You usually notice the biggest figure first, but it's worth stepping closer and walking all the way round: at the bottom there are small scenes with captions, and that's often where the sharpest jokes are.
Next to the big falla there is usually a children's one — smaller, with stories for or about children. It is still made by professional artists, and children's fallas have their own competition.
The most expensive and largest compositions — nine of them — compete in the Special Section. To get a sense of what a figure in this category costs, take the falla of the Convento Jerusalén–Matemático Marzal commission: in 2025 it cost €250,000, and in 2026 €260,000.
Famous artists have also worked on fallas over the years, Salvador Dalí among them. In 1954 his “Surrealist Bullfight” was put up on what is now City Hall Square; it caused controversy and by no means everyone liked it.
In 2024 the same square held “Two Doves, One Branch”, an anti-war composition by the artist Escif. And for March 2027 a huge figure of Nino Bravo is planned — the famous Valencian singer known for the song Un beso y una flor, which fans sang in the streets of Spanish cities after Spain won the football World Cup. The project is called “I'm Coming Back to My Land”, and its stated height is about 20 metres.
Whatever the falla, on the evening of 19 March the cremà awaits it — the burning: the children's compositions go first, then the big ones. That includes the competition winners; a prize changes nothing, because the figures are made from the start in the knowledge that they will burn on the last night.
Only a few individual ninots can survive. Before Las Fallas they are gathered in an exhibition where visitors vote for the ones to be “pardoned” — spared from the fire and sent to the Fallas Museum.
Hear the mascletà and see the Night of Fire
Besides the figures, you really should experience the mascletà — a daytime pyrotechnic show where what matters is sound and rhythm. It takes place every day from 1 to 19 March at 14:00 on City Hall Square and begins once the leading falleras give the pyrotechnician permission from the balcony.
Over the five to seven minutes the mascletà lasts, single bangs gradually come faster and louder, and aerial charges join the ground ones. It all follows a sequence the pyrotechnician has planned in advance.
During the loudest part, called the “earthquake”, the explosions merge into a continuous roar and you feel the vibration in your legs and chest. Then comes the aerial finale, after which the square applauds and people discuss how it went: the rhythm, the transitions, the finale. The mascletà has many connoisseurs who really know their stuff.
At night there are the more familiar fireworks. From 18 to 19 March comes the Night of Fire — the biggest and most spectacular firework display of the year.
In fact, you'll hear explosions far beyond the mascletà. In the morning, for example, you may wake up to the despertà, when members march through the streets with music and firecrackers.
See the Ofrenda and the Virgin's flower robe
On 17 and 18 March comes the Ofrenda — the offering of flowers to Our Lady of the Forsaken, patron of Valencia. On these days falleros and falleras in traditional dress walk with bouquets to the Plaza de la Virgen.
To understand why this matters so much to Valencians, it helps to know a little about Our Lady of the Forsaken herself. She was venerated as the protector of people who had no one else to turn to, and the history of the image is linked to the first psychiatric hospital in the Christian world, founded in Valencia in the early 15th century. Over time she became patron of the whole city, and today many locals have family stories and memories connected with the Virgen, affectionately nicknamed “the little hunchback” here.
For the Ofrenda a large wooden structure with the Virgin's head and hands is set up on the square. As the participants bring carnations, helpers pass the bouquets up and arrange them according to a pre-drawn design, gradually building her robe on the wooden frame.
The design of the robe is new every year, and during the procession you can watch it take shape. For many participants the Ofrenda is the most important part of Las Fallas: some give thanks, some remember loved ones, some ask for something of their own. So you are sure to see people in tears as they approach the square.
After the Ofrenda the flowers stay in place for a while, so you can come back the morning after the festival and take a calm look at the finished robe and the flower arrangements filling the whole square.
What people eat and what music they play
As you walk around, try the pumpkin doughnuts (buñuelos). They are fried in oil, sprinkled with sugar and served with thick hot chocolate, and stalls selling them pop up all over the city in March.
Within the commissions, between processions, setting up figures and everything else, members gather for shared lunches and dinners and cook paella. In the evening the verbenas begin — street parties with music and dancing that often go on late into the night.
There's music in the daytime too: you'll keep meeting brass bands and small percussion groups that accompany the commissions at ceremonies and the Ofrenda. They often play pasodobles — marches with a firm beat that is easy to walk to in a procession.
How to plan your trip
Come to Valencia from 15 to 20 March. If you want both to enjoy the festival and to get some sleep, I'd suggest staying away from the centre, near a metro station. Buses are less reliable: road closures change routes and stops.
Las Fallas is celebrated all over the city, and on a quiet-looking street there may be a commission marquee or a stage right under your windows. So before booking, ask the host or the hotel whether there are night-time parties nearby.
If you do decide to stay in the centre, look for a flat or room facing a courtyard and with good soundproofing — otherwise you'll be sleeping between bursts of music and firecrackers.
Walking is the easiest way to get around the centre, but allow more time than usual. Where you could walk yesterday there may be a falla or a barrier today, and a procession may take over the street you need.
Renting a bike is a good idea. Valencia has an extensive network of cycle lanes, and during the festival a bike lets you get around quickly without depending on traffic and closures. Download the city's Valenbici app in advance or contact a private bike rental in the area where you'll be staying.
To choose where and when to go, check the full programme on the official tourism website Visit Valencia (visitvalencia.com): it lists the times and places of the mascletà, night fireworks, processions and other events.
Book accommodation and restaurants early. But I wouldn't plan every hour of your walks: you'll want to linger by a figure, listen to a band or turn into the next street where something else is happening.
