The Mascleta | Daily Fallas Event in Valencia

We’ll never forget when we attended the Mascleta as our first Fallas event in Valencia. We heard a lot about it from friends who live in Valencia. But what they all said, was that you just have to be there to understand it and it’s a must-have experience in Valencia during the Fallas. Until you can go in person, here’s our best recounting of it so you can know a bit of what to expect, or in case you want to save your eardrums and just take our word for it.

Read further from our firsthand account, to really understand this Fallas event in Valencia.

Above Image – Where all that gunpowder is set up.

When and Where is this Fallas Event in Valencia?

Every year, the Mascleta starts on March 1st and goes until March 19th. It takes place daily between those dates, when at two o’clock in the afternoon thousands of people gather in Valencia’s Plaza de Ayuntamiento to see the fireworks and gunpowder blasts that are set off from the very center.

During the 30 minutes or so before it begins, we saw young people gathered in the streets of the Plaza playing drums loudly and dancing on stilts.

Who Lights the Fuse for the Mascleta?

Our American expat friends who have been living in Valencia, pointed out to us the large balcony of the front of Ayuntamiento building facing where the fireworks and blasts were set to go off. It was full of the Falleras, the Valencian ladies of the Fallas. The Fallera Mayor is the one who each day lights the fuse that officially sets off the spectacular display.

The fireworks are not huge, but the ones we saw were yellow and red and what was most impressive was the noise. With each blast, there were billows of smoke and deep, loud booming that echoed off the buildings. As the fireworks and gunpowder exploded faster and faster, and closer together, the echoes escalated to an immense thundering! It’s hard to express how you feel as it reverberates throughout your entire body, but that’s exactly what it does.

Our favorite part was towards the end. Just as the incredible noise came to its climax, everyone around was raising their arms and shouting and jumping up and down – it was like a wave of ecstatic energy rolling through all of us! Yet you couldn’t even hear yourself, much less each other.

That is what was so hilarious, and yet also inspiring to us; that even though they couldn’t hear themselves, the people had to join in with the immense noise and thrill of the feeling. You get swept up in the excitement of it all!

We’re really enjoying the Fallas and look forward to bringing you more stories soon. So stay tuned!

Have you ever been to the Fallas and experienced the Mascleta? We’d love to hear of your experience and what you thought of it.