On our way home from the final mascletà of Fallas 2009 at the Ayuntamiento, we walked right into a small street mascletà, set up on Calle de Adresadors.
“Cute!”, we thought. “This ought to be an enjoyable, light finale. These little firecrackers are colorful and non-threatening!”
Oh… how wrong. We stood no further than 10 meters away from the roped-off area, but by the end, I’d backed off twice that distance, whimpering like a stricken puppy. This was a short, violent mascletà, and our proximity made for a terrifying experience. After it was done, I patted my ears to ensure they weren’t bleeding.
So, take this as a warning. Even small mascletàs can be extremely, extremely loud. Keep your distance if you value your eardrums. And if you do end up next to one, don’t plug your ears with your fingers — we saw some workers warning tourists about it. The rule is that you should keep both your ears and mouth open.
These may have less fireworks in kilograms, but boy are they intense. Especially as the ones we saw were not in a large square like Ajuntament, but just in the streets between the houses. It echoes and echoes, and the finale makes your stomach crumble… Pictures/Movies available in due time….
I do not know how you guys can hear anything after 20+ mascletas and castillos de fuegos.
AJS,
That street Mascletà was worse than all the others and the castillos combined. Next year we will wear ear protection at least for the street Mascletàs.
Survived Fallas ok?
Street mascletas are the best – nothing beats being up real close. We caught at least 3 or 4 of these every day, including a few night time ones. There were 3 street mascleta sites all within 100yds of our apartment. Another word of warning, don’t wear shorts at street mascletas, a stray salute shell exploded near our feet and my friend has a nice scar as a momento.
I told you, street mascletas are great, i had 3 around my flat, and they wouldn’t set them all at the same time. so i got to go to all of them. my eardrums were not happy.
We kind of licked blood for street Mascletàs and we will cover more of those next year. Not really sure what to do with the ears though. Cut them off?!?!
Pingback: What’s that Stink? 4 Circuses Descend on Valencia | Hola Valencia Blog
Pingback: Fallas 2010: Miniature Street Mascletàs
Pingback: Dubai Timelapse
Pingback: The Insane Beehive Firework Festival In Taiwan | Random Good Stuff
Pingback: Total Blogal - Spaß Blog