The Valencian Community in Spain is very festive. Any excuse is good enough to organize a party and celebrate. Or the other way round, you just celebrate and then you choose your own excuse for the celebration!
The smell of gunpowder invites you to party. Personally, I love that smell, because I know that noise, food, dancing, in short, a party is coming!! The best way for people from Alicante to celebrate is by using gunpowder. And they are specialists at it. The mascletá is their speciality, both by day and night.
A mascletá (from Valencian: mascletà, a masclet is a firecracker) is a pyrotechnic shot that forms a very noisy and rhythmic composition that is fired with festive motifs in squares and streets, normally during the day; it is typical of the Valencian Community. During the San Juan festivities, in Alicante -my city!-, there are 2 large Mascletá competitions. One takes place from June 19-24, at 2 pm, in the Plaza de los Luceros, which is in the city center. And the second contest is from June 25-29, at Postiguet Beach, at midnight.The price of each Mascletá is between 8,500 and 10,000 Euros. Each pyrotechnic company explodes about 130 kilos of gunpowder in about 10-15 minutes in the first contest. You might wonder why you have to shoot off fireworks in the middle of the day if you can’t see anything. True, you can’t see anything but smoke. Sometimes when they explode you see coloured smoke. But what counts for this competition is the noise, yes, the noise. Each mascletà has a different musical composition that originates through the noise of the gunpowder cannons. The shooting starts slowly and gradually increases in volume, until it reaches what is known as the “earthquake”, which is the final part, where lots of firecrackers explode at the same time, causing a deafening noise. Finally, some very powerful shells are fired, which end the mascletà.
The ones that are fired at night, at the end of June, are spectacular. Everyone takes their dinner and sits on the sand at the beach to eat and enjoy the fireworks. These last approximately half an hour, 40 minutes.
As in many other places, there is a Queen, in Alicante, you have the Bellea del Foc (Fire Queen in Valencian). She is the one giving the order to start each mascletá. I am sharing the latest Queen chosen for 2024. She is wearing the typical costume from the area which is a copy of the 17th-18th century wedding dress from Alicante. Isn´t she beautiful?
Lastly I am sharing a link from YouTube where you can see/hear a mascletá and have an idea of what you will enjoy when you visit Alicante in June!!
I AM READY!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU????????