Sat, 20 March 2010
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Deafening, dazzling and downright strange. It must be Valencia's Las Fallas. We taste the madness.Like many a journalist, I always harboured ambitions to be a war reporter. The idea of the danger and the glamour fill many a young journalist's head.
So far, this is still on the wish-list.
But now I have been to Las Fallas, Valencia's surreal celebration in honour of St Joseph, I feel I have fulfilled that ambition, in a peculiar way. For, like most, I imagine any war zone is filled with the sounds of bombs, artillery and gunfire.
And the man-made cacophony of Las Fallas must rival the soundscape of any of the world's forgotten war zones on a bad day.
Of course, describing noise on a page is a hard thing to do; the ear-splitting reality cannot be beaten.
But, put it this way, seasoned falleros – regulars at Las Fallas - tell you ear-plugs are a waste of time, as even the best offer no protection from the earth-shattering boom. Your entire body shakes as these monstrous fireworks reverberate around the city relentlessly.
Filming la quema at the end of las fallas
The best thing to do as the furore reaches it peak, during what is called las mascletas – the carefully orchestrated explosion of hundreds of sound fireworks – is open your mouth, so the sound can pass through your body.
So as you stand engulfed in clouds of smoke as the fireworks go off around you, you remain like some kind of goldfish in an effort to save your eardrums.
Away from the deafening noise, you are struck at almost every street corner by the huge, surreal and highly-imaginative papier mache figures satirizing society and current politics.
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