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Festival Fun in Valencia
Take a trip down to Valencia at certain times of the year and you'll find yourself in the middle of some fun filled fiestas. Valencia is Spain’s third largest city and though it isn’t as modish as a city like Barcelona, it is just as lively. Valencia has a background of Moorish settlement, is the city that gave Spain paella, and has some of the country’s most beautiful silk shops. It also has a regular turnout of fiestas throughout the year, which are said to be the wildest in Spain. Here is a handful - from spring to summer - worth marking in your travelling calendar.
Las Fallas de San Jose, March
This is undoubtedly the biggest of the bonfire festivals, and a significant one at that. A fortune is spent on preparation and materials for the bonfire, all of it burned on the final day. Anybody in the public eye is fair game, and caricatures of film stars, politicians - and whoever else fits the profile -are put in the pile. More traditionally, there are some bullfights for those that approve and a series of epic firework displays into the night.
Dia de San Juan, June
Not too dissimilar to Las Fallas, except taking place on a smaller scale, with most of the festival happenings on the beaches of San Juan de Alicante: Malvarossa, Cabanyal and Aloboroya. The bonfire jumping is the main attraction here and is a traditional event. According to the folklore of the festival, those that can jump three times over the bonfire will be purified of all their sins.
La Tomatina, August
This is a light-hearted festival that is lots fun. With an arsenal of 140 tons of ripe tomatoes, festival goers delight in a war, which leaves no stone left clean and no person - tourists included - without tomato stains on their clothing. As well as the vegetable throwing, the festival has lots of traditional music; beautiful firework displays and Europe’s best orchestras serenade the whole event in the open-air auditorium.
With the festivals, planning is key as they tend to take over the city and the hotels and hostels get booked up pretty quickly. It’s best to try and arrange your lodgings in advance. You’ll find lots of accommodation for the shoestring budget near the train station; however for a list of hostels around the city you might like to try HostelBookers.com for variety. Don’t forget you’ll need travel insurance during your stay – it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead with this either. Check out Go Travel’s list of packages for one that fits the bill.
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