Our first Mascleta

Well….

We have to admit and can confirm that a Mascleta definitely has more ear-deafening fireworks than anything we have ever heard in China!

Difficult to describe:
Thousands of people were gathered on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (the City Council Square in Valencia). I had read somewhere that people would start gathering from 13:30hr onwards and when we got there a around that time it was already pretty packed.

A few “warning”-bangs scared the hell out of the crowd and helped in building up anticipation. Music was played and on the supreme spot, the balcony of the City Council, we could see people dancing.

At exactly 14:00hr the fireworks were lit, the choreographed explosions series took off and for the next 5 minutes people could just watch in awe! It was almost impossible to speak unless by yelling into each others ears.

And at 14:05hr it all ended with a grand series of incredible loud bangs and thunders up in the sky followed by a big applause from the people.

Then it was all over and people went all back to where they came from. We headed for lunch to a little tapas place opposite of the Mercado Central: deep-fried shrimps and sardines in oil with olives, delicious. Mia finally starts to like this type of Spanish food (all the bread-based tapas such as montaditos, bocadillos and pinxtos are not her favorites), so that is great as we will have to sample lots of them!

Below some of the photos I took and 2 videos I shot. The videos actually give only a tiny glimpse of the event as you cannot hear the deep base thunders that were constantly being fired off…

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