The 2021 October Fallas Of Alzira

The Fallas celebrations of 2021 were often cancelled throughout the Valencian Community — with the notable exception of the capital itself, where there was a largely successful five-day festival in September. Another big center of Fallas culture is the town of Alzira, 30 minutes to the south of Valencia, where they also decided to host an autumn version of the event. We visited in early October, to check it out.

Fallas of Alzira – Day Trip From Valencia

Our plan had been to take the train in the morning, see a few figures and the mascletá at 14h, then grab lunch and return home. But we were having such a fun time in Alzira, checking out not just the Fallas monuments but the town itself, that we decided to be spontaneous and stay overnight. We wanted to see the evening fireworks and also the cremá, so even though we didn’t have a change of clothes or any toiletries, we checked into a hotel and cancelled all our plans for the day.

After a quick siesta, we set out to witness the acts of Alzira’s final day of Fallas, which they had timed to line up with the national Day of Spain, on October 12th. First up was the ofrendá, a parade similar to Valencia’s but on a much reduced scale — Alzira only had six commissions participating in Fallas this year, so the virgin to whom they carried flowers wasn’t ten meters high… more like two.

Valencia’s ofrendá stretches over two days, so although Alzira’s was much smaller in comparison, it still took hours. By the time it finished, we had to rush over to the Plaça del Regne, to watch the night fireworks.

Once the fireworks had concluded, it was time for the culmination of Fallas, in the form of the cremá. We first watched a couple fallas infantiles be set on fire; the first vanished quickly in the flames, but the second figure needed a lot more time, and produced a lot more black, heavy smoke. We moved out of the way, along with everyone in the crowd. Well… almost everyone. There was one solitary grandma who refused to budge from her spot, because she was apparently streaming the cremá to her grandchildren.

Now, it was time to witness the cremá of one of the main figures, and close out Fallas in this small town. We chose the one at the Plaza Mayor, and had to wait for over an hour while the crews prepared the figure for its fiery death. But it was worth the wait, because the spectacle was just as awe-inspiring as it always is.