Finally we’ve arrived to March 19th — the last day of Fallas. This is the last time we’ll be making our regular 2pm pilgrimage to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento to watch the daily mascletà. Since the day of the Cridà on February 26th, we haven’t missed a single firework at Valencia’s main square. That’s a lot of gunpowder! And later, we’ll reveal the total number of fireworks we were able to witness during Fallas 2023 in an upcoming post where we compile all the festival’s pyro highlights.

Going to the mascletàs every day was our daily routine for almost three weeks. As you might imagine, the sudden end of this routine creates a void in our lives. There’s always a bit of sadness but also relief, once the smoke of the last mascletà has lifted. And this was exactly how we felt after this year’s final show, arranged by Pirotecnia Valenciana. What an incredible and colorful firework! It was so strong and loud that our eardrums were vibrating. At the end we were covered in smoke and debris and couldn’t have been happier… even though there was a touch of sorrow, that it was all ending.

But there is no reason to be too sad after the final 2pm mascletà, because it’s tradition that in the afternoon on the March 19th many of the city’s casals shoot their own street mascletàs and if you time it right, you can watch a couple of them. This year, we managed to rush over to the Ruzafa Market to catch the show at 3pm, and it was a perfect final rush — not on the same scale as the one in the Ayuntamiento, obviously, but still spectacular.

The show started a bit slow, but the finale and the giant gunpowder cloud during the finale made this the perfect concluding mascletà of Fallas 2023. Now it was time to head home, take a quick rest before the festival’s final events: the Cabalgata del Fuego and the grand finale, the Cremà, when all the Fallas figures are burned!