I can still vividly remember that sunny day in March, 2020, standing in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento with thousands of other Fallas fans to catch a daily mascletà. The mood was a little strange, as by this point, people were starting to talk about the Coronavirus, and some were even speculating that Fallas might be cancelled. “Ridiculous”, we thought. “A silly virus can never stop this festival!”
Little did we know! Fallas 2020 was of course cancelled the very next day. And then it was cancelled again in 2021. But if everyone in Valencia behaves and wears their masks and socially distances, there might be a consolation. As long as infection rates allow for it, a reduced version of the festival has been authorized from September 1st until the 5th. Fallas in the summer is something that’s never happened before (as far as we know), and to get into the spirit, we went to the 2021 Ninot Exhibit, held at the Marina.
Since none of them had been burned, we recognized many of the figures from the previous year’s exhibition, although some had been modified to pay tribute to the pandemic: a face mask, or a little globular virus cell. The venue for the exhibition was one of the old America’s Cup buildings at the harbor, and it was neat to get inside.
As I mentioned before, there were no big surprises, but it was still fun to see all the figures in the different venue and there is nothing better than the Ninot Exhibition to put you into a Fallas kind of mood.
As always, the figures represent current political affairs (in this case, some affairs from 2019, which seems like a lifetime ago!) humor, pure cuteness or general Fallas themes. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we can see the Ninots burn. The cremà is supposed to happen on the evening of September 5th. But these days, you never know!
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