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Forthcoming Events
By Keith Nicol
As the temperatures are on the rise and the tourists arrive in their droves, it’s time to move into summertime mode for the next couple of months.
QF Focus Magazine
mascleta displays, five beautiful evenings of fireworks on the beach, an international folk parade, floral offerings and the main night of festivities, called the Cremá, when the magnificent statues are burnt. In Torrevieja the fiesta is of International Tourist Interest and well worth enjoying with the major events taking place on the 23rd and 24th of the month.
Alicante celebrates the coming of summer with the bonfires of San Juan. In a spectacular display of music, colour and fireworks, thousands of people throng the streets to experience this fiesta which pays tribute to fire. To celebrate the arrival of summer, the people of Alicante would traditionally gather together on 23rd June for a festive dinner: they feasted on typical products, and at midnight they would light bonfires and dance around them, set off fireworks and go swimming in the sea. This custom endured over the years, and in 1928 the fiestas of the Bonfires of San Juan were formally constituted. For several days, Alicante celebrates this great homage to fire, where the stars of the show are genuine works of ephemeral art: the bonfires and the enormous cardboard and wooden figures which go up in flames on the night of San Juan.
The major fun event for the end of June is the Fogueres de Sant Joan or Hogueras de San Juan. In Alicante the event generally takes up the entire month with each neighbourhood doing something different but similar. Hogueras has been taken up by most of the local towns and cities and many have an evening at the beach, in a picnic come carnival atmosphere. In Alicante there are usually five impressive night time mascleta displays, six massive day time
The queen of the fiesta, known as the “Bellea del Foc” (“Beauty of Fire”), is chosen in May from among the candidates presented by a committee in each neighbourhood. The festivities officially begin on 20th June with the “plantà”, or building of enormous bonfires with their tongue-in-cheek cardboard figures which fill the streets of Alicante with wit and good humour. That day the “barracas” or large tents are also put up to serve as a public dance floor, and where fiesta-goers can sample the typical figs and “cocas” (a kind of pastry with tuna, onions and pine nuts). Some of the highlights of the festivities include the Entry of the Bands and Committees, with their respective “beauties” and their ladies-in-waiting wearing traditional dress; the floral offering to the patron saint of the city, the Virgin of El Remedio on 21st and 22nd June; and the international folklore parade, a spectacular procession featuring dance troupes from all over the world. In addition, every day at two in the afternoon from 19th to 24th June, there are firework displays in Plaza de los Luceros square: these are the ear-splitting “mascletàs”, for which ear-plugs are highly recommended due to the racket of the exploding firecrackers and rockets. And finally at midnight on 24th June comes the “Cremà” (burning), the high point of the fiestas.
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