What is the so called Mascletà?
For the next 19 days of the Fallas Festival, Valencians and visitors can gather in the Town Hall Square at 2pm to behold this unique event.
Each day a different pyrotechnic company is in charge of setting off the Mascletà, inside the fences especially mounted for these days, which is necessary considering that more than a hundred kilograms of gunpowder are burnt by exploding thousands of powerful firecrackers.
Lasting between 5 and 8 minutes, each pyrotechnic decides how they want to set off the Mascletà. Currently, most companies use computers to burn the firecrackers, but there are still some pyrotechnics who choose to do it in the traditional way and set them off manually.
The pyrotechnics also design the display and how they are going to set off the firecrackers and gunpowder explosions. It’s an intricate and creative process, and usually the most common structure is to begin with the aerial part of the show; like the fireworks and color displays following the rhythm of the music. The end of the Mascletà displays impressive terrestrial part, called “final earthquake” known as «terremoto final», which shakes the whole square, engulfing the crowd in a huge smoke cloud and making their hairs stand on edge!
To be honest, the first thought of foreigners and visitors is that Valencians are insane!
But what you’ll find is, if you try it once, you will certainly want to repeat it,
And the great thing is, you have 19 chances every year!
If you want to find out more about Valencia and what’s going on, check our our other blog posts