FALLES:
15-19 March each year.
This year's celebration cancelled until a date uncertain.
Model of the 2020 Falla for the City's main Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The theme was obviously meant to reflect the idea of tranquility in the midst of chaos.
The Falla waiting to be fully assembled. (Photo by others.)
The situation the day after Falles was cancelled. It is not clear who added the mask. It is also unclear as to the fate of this community Falla.
POSTSCRIPT
For a few more days, the head of the Falla remained as shown above; the base in the background has been burned per tradition in a non-publicly-announced ceremony.
EL PAIS: Spanish language daily newspaper in Spain)
Valencia - 17 MAR 2020 - 01:32CET
(GOOGLE TRANSLATE)
In hiding, without an audience, without firecrackers, with the only tears of the fine rain that fell. This is how the central body of the municipal fault (falla) of Valencia burned last dawn in silence, with the Valencians confined to their homes and with no more public than a fire and police checkpoint. The spread of the coronavirus has forced the city to postpone its big party, which says goodbye to winter and gives way to spring. Given the impossibility of dismantling the lower part of the Fallas monument, already installed on the street after the outbreak of the crisis, burning it was the most plausible solution. So last night, in the midst of a light rain, without giving it publicity, the flames devoured part of a structure that had to rise 20 meters from the ground.
But the fire, which traditionally consumes around 700 faults (falles) every midnight on March 19, has not destroyed the entire City Hall monument, which this year had as its motto a premonitory Açò també passarà (This will also happen). The falla, a gigantic young woman meditating, the work of the urban artist Escif and of the artisans Manolo Martín and José Ramón Espuig, has lost, only the lower part of the flames, but retains the iconic bust, with her face covered by a mask, to be burned in July, the month the city has decided to postpone a party that moves hundreds of millions of euros in artisan workshops, fireworks, flowers, clothing and music bands.
(Photo from the article.)
On 23 March, the remaining head and shoulders were unceremoniously hauled away, reportedly to be re-assembled for a yet-to-be re-scheduled Falles 2020. (Two photos below from Levante News.)
THE TRADITIONAL COSTUMES OF FALLES:
...And, for a bit of humor in this time of uncertainty, what some people think will need to happen to the costumes to be bearable in the heat of a Spanish July - the latest re-scheduling date.
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