La caraba en bicicleta: Let's go to Valencia

La Crida marks the official opening of the Fallas Festival.
Crowds of onlookers and all the Fallas Committees gather beneath the Serranos Towers, one of historical Valencia’s best-known monuments, usually on the last Sunday in February.

After a spectacular inaugural display of light, sound, music and fireworks, the “Fallera Mayor” of Valencia (elected festival queen), surrounded by her Court of Honour and the city authorities, invites everyone to enjoy the imminent fiesta, proclaiming its excellence and virtues.

Versió en valencià

The Ninot Exhibition

The ” ninots ” are the individual figures that make up the scenes in the Fallas monuments. At the beginning of February, each Committee donates its best ” ninot ” (just one) to a collective exhibition that is open to the public up until the day of the “plantà” (15th March), when each figure is collected by its Committee and taken back to the Fallas monument it belongs to on a noisy and colourful parade with whistles and brass bands.

Each visitor to this exhibition has the chance to vote for the “ninot” that he or she likes best: whether because of its originality or its design. When the time comes to close the exhibition, the votes are added up and the “ninot” with the largest number of votes is saved from the flames: this “ninot indultat” will have the honour of being the only “ninot” in all of Valencia that will not burn on the night of the 19th.

The same process is repeated with the children’s Fallas, whose “ninots” can also be visited at the same exhibition.