Life: Idiotropic

These are a small portion of the flowers that will be thrown today.

Every year at the end of the Feria de Julio in Valencia, a flower fight ensues on the Paseo de la Alameda where locals and tourists can pelt the finely dressed fallera princesses sitting properly in large floral floats with heavy headed flowers.  It's perfect for women with a complex.  Let's pelt the fair skinned with flowers and try to mess that perfect hair!

I've known about this parade for over a year.  What I didn't know and hadn't read in any blog or review of the event is that if you actually want to be a part of the flower throwing fight, you have to buy a ticket in advance for one of the private boxes along either side of the street.  There, you have room for 6 people and are provided with two crates of flowers and a bag of snacks.  That would have been perfect.  And I would have paid... if I would have known... but I didn't... so...

I stood on a gazebo just behind the thick crowds who pushed in on each other behind the fence that separated the masses from the privileged box holders.  The gazebo had no ladder nor stairs.  You had to reach up, grab onto the wrought iron fence around it, and pull yourself up.  I pushed up Luci, then Elise.  Strangers helped them in and took my purse for me.  Strangers let Luci and Elise stand in front of them and watch the parade as well.  They are good to children here.

I, armed with several lenses, used only my telephoto as I was much too far to really get the close shots I wanted.  It was painfully disappointing.

All Valencian processions begin with men on horses, so promptly at 2030, two men in uniform with feathered hats rode by on dappled white horses.    The ponchoed men with flower poles were next, then falla couples riding together, then the cars, then the floats.

The parade route is a wide strip of road about 5 city blocks long.  It's covered in the fine sand that is used here for bull runs to give the animals traction on the roads.  The parade begins slowly.  Each car or float passes the judges stand and the announcer tells the audience where they are from.  They pass by, turn at the end, then return creating a long loop with new floats going up one side and ones we've seen returning on the other.  They continue the loop passing by again and this time the announcer hands out prizes to the best floats.  The float of the Ayutamiento - the City Hall with last year's court wins the biggest prize and the Fallera Major sits there all smiles waving to the crowds.


























The neighborhoods of Valencia have recently chosen their 2010-2011 Fallera courts, the court of princesses that will attend many of the events during this year of celebrations leading up to Fallas.  Most of them today are dressed in the traditional silk gowns with the special hair pieces and hair combs put in and big dangle earrings.   Some though are dressed in a theme to match their float - cats, Hawaiian girls, country girls with straw hats, Egyptians... it's fun to see and so far, they are all quite happy.

It's hot and humid.  I can't imagine how uncomfortable they must be sitting packed tightly together in those heavy silk dresses, tennis rackets neatly laid across their laps.

When all the awards have been given out, they sound a blast and the flower fight begins.  Those folks in the boxes are grabbing handfuls of flowers and pelting falleras young and old.  No one is safe. Some of the girls hide behind their rackets shielding their eyes. Some scoop up handfuls of flowers as they fall and throw them right back.

Many of the older girls have a clear plastic sheet across their laps to keep their dresses clean.  A fallera's dress can cost well over 10,000 Euros.

The fight lasts for 30 minutes.  The fallera major hides behind her racket the entire time picking flowers off her skirt as they land.

When the blast sounds again, it is over.  The last of the flowers are thrown as the floats exit the Alameda and dismantle up the street.  The crowds (us included) take to the parade route picking up handfuls of flowers from the ground and pelting each other with them.  I learned that Luci and Elise both have great aim when throwing mums.  The smell is strong.  I could smell it from the gazebo too.  The sweet mum smell is unmistakable.

We walk by a few crowded stands selling grilled corn, something I've only seen in the summer here.  There's a small fireworks display - quite sad really, nothing like the usual Valencian displays that have so impressed me.  We walk around the carnival and see a food vendor selling "Cheek Kebabs,"  then I let the girls play for a few minutes before we go home.