From June 20th-24th the whole city of Alicante explodes into a joyous rumpus of colour and light, where the main protagonist is fire.

Many cities in Spain have a fascination with fire around the festival of San Juan (Saint John) and Alicante is no different. Expect hordes of firecrackers, ear-splitting explosives, crackling bonfires, and of course hundreds of colourful fireworks lighting up the sky with fiery rain.

READ ALSO: Goats, horses and fire: the weird ways Spain celebrates San Juan

The event has a lot in common with Valencia’s more famous Fallas Festival, which takes place in March each year, yet it also has its origins in the summer solstice celebrations.

 

The festival in Alicante began as a way for people to burn objects they no longer had any use for ahead of the summer season, making way for the new, and officially became a city celebration in 1928.

During the day, from June 21st- 22nd, parades take place through the city streets with locals dressed in traditional costumes, playing folk tunes and sometimes carrying elaborate religious statues. The main event is the ofrenda de Flores a la Virgen del Remedio, where flowers are taken as offerings to the Cathedral, where they get turned into huge floral images on the façade.

Each day at 2pm, there is a frenzy of noise, ground-shaking explosions and plumes of smoke white smoke during what’s known as the Mascletà in the Plaza de los Luceros, and by night there are carnival-like parades such as the Cabalgata del Ninot.

A Carnival-like queen is selected from eager participants, called the bellea del foc or the Beauty of the Fire and elaborate costumes are worn. 

The highlight of these series of celebrations are the hogueras themselves, like Valencia’s fallas – huge cardboard and papier-mâché colouful sculptures, depicting fairytales, folklore and mystical legends, as well as political satire.

These sculptures are placed all over the city, until the culmination of the celebration on June 24th. At midnight explosives are attached to each hoguera and they are simultaneously set alight in a spectacular display known as the night of the “Cremà” or burning.

When each has burned to almost cinders, the city’s fight fighters come out with their hoses to douse everything in water, including the crowds who come in their bathing suits ready to take part in the communal “Banyà” and to cool down after a hot night of fire.

This is accompanied by riotous beach parties and beach bonfires, when locals aim to jump over the flames in order to ward off negative spirits, bring good luck and then cleanse themselves and wash away their sins with a dip in the sea. 

But, the fiesta is far from over, as from June 25-29 right after Las Hogueras a jubilant firework competition takes place on El Postiguet beach