STORY: :: Giant figures target flood management failures at Valencia’s annual Fallas festival
:: March 16, 2025
:: Valencia, Spain
:: Maria Jesus Andres, Vice President, El Pilar Falla
“Fallas are about criticism and satire, but always with respect. They naturally have to reference politics and current events, which is why they critique everything we see as wrong, but with a satirical perspective.”
Tourists and locals visited the Fallas festival held every year in the Valencia region where sculptures, some of them satirical are scattered across the city before being set on fire.
The giant figures, or “ninots”, which is the Valencian word for dolls, are often made from wood, plaster and paper mache over many months.
Valencia’s regional leader Carlos Mazon and Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez were among the figures featured at this year’s event.
This year’s festival has a cathartic aspect, coming after rain and flash floods prompted rivers to overflow in Valencia and other parts of Spain killing more than 200 people and destroying homes and property in October 2024.
The winner of this year was a Fallera, a traditionally dressed Valencian woman, and workers covered in mud, referencing the impact of the storm.
