For most of humanity, public holidays are a breathlessly awaited godsend. But when you work independently, and are living in a new country, they can be an unexpected nuisance.

Ach, get up there already.

Like today, for instance. I woke up early, intending to get a paper and sit at my favorite café for breakfast. Oh, the plans I had for the day! A haircut, shopping, registering for social security… yes, I’ll need a hearty breakfast for power!

On stepping out, it took me awhile to notice how silent the city was. No cars, no businessmen, even the ever-present hippie drug dealer at the corner was absent. And of course, everything was closed. Assumption Day!

Assumption Day is a national holiday?! My plans were destroyed, my life sent into utter turmoil, all because Mary had to ascend into heaven.

January 1st - New Year’s Day
January 22nd - San Vicente Martir
March 19th - San José - Also: End of Fallas
March 20th - Holy Thursday
March 21st - Good Friday
March 24th - Easter Monday
March 31st - San Vicente Ferrer - Falls on the Monday after Easter
May 1st - Labor Day
August 15th - Assumption Day - Lame!
October 9th - Day of the Valencian Community
November 1st - All Saints Day
December 6th - Day of the Constitution
December 8th - Immaculate Conception
December 25th - Christmas

Just an observation, and probably something most Christians wonder about at some point in their upbringing: if the Immaculate Conception was December 8th, doesn’t that make Jesus the ultimate preemie?

Soccer meets volleyball at the 4th annual footvolley tournament at Las Arenas beach, in Malvarrosa (location).

A 21st century mixture of sports (some may call it a ‘mashup‘; very Sport 2.0), footvolley is extremely fun to watch — it’s almost best viewed as an exhibition of skill. Check out some of the footage from 2006’s world tournament, also held in Valencia.

This is the 4th annual tournament… and Brazil will be looking to pick up their 4th consecutive title. Damned Brazilians! What with their samba, partying and domination in all things soccer, they get on my nerves.

Other teams invited this year come from all over Europe and South America. Our sympathies will be with the Germans. The footvolley championship would be a nice consolation prize after the heartbreak of the Euro 2008.

More Info at Spain’s Footvolley Site (in Spanish)

La Batalla de Flores from Valencia Blog on Vimeo.

Marking the end of Valencia’s Feria de Julio is the famous flower battle (la batalla de flores), established in 1892. Basically, falleras ride on parade floats, equip themselves with tennis rackets, and allow onlookers to pelt them with heavy little flowers. It’s great fun, and if you’d become sick of seeing the Fallera Mayor’s pretty, blond face everywhere… well, this was your chance to smack it with a flower. (Though, it must be said, while most her court was quickly overwhelmed by the onslaught, the Fallera Mayor never lost her composure, swatting away every flower with ice cold precision … perhaps it was this skill that won her the coveted position in the first place)

The battle was proceeded by a small parade on La Alameda, which went up and down the street 4 times before the warfare began. The girls on the floats all looked a little nervous regarding the warfare to come, and the public was impatient.

After the battle had finished, spectators ran into the street to gather up armfuls of flowers to throw at each other. Some of the more eager didn’t notice (or care) that they were picking up horse manure with the flowers.

The night ended with fireworks over the Turia.

Get ready for yet more open-air, original version cinema in Valencia, courtesy of l’IVAC-La Filmoteca and l’Aula de Cinema de la Universtat de Valencia. This time, the films are being shown at the Jardines del Palau de la Música (location)…

And the program is great! It’s like a master class in Cinema Classics… Godard, Lubitsch, Fellini, Wilder, Tarantino, Bergman. Every genre is covered, from animation (Ratatouille) to art house (Seventh Seal). In our day jobs, we run a popular film website and can verify that every movie in this program is worth seeing.

It runs from July 28th to September 7th. The films start at 11pm and entry is €3 (or you can get 10 entrances for €20).

Here’s the full lineup. I’ve listed the English names of the films, but keep in mind that everything is being shown in OV, with Spanish subtitles. Feel free to bookmark this page, for easy reference!

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Jul 28	Jul 29	Jul 30	Jul 31	Aug 1	Aug 2	Aug 3
Amarcord France, 1973		Ninotchka USA, 1939		American Gangster USA, 2007
Aug 4	Aug 5	Aug 6	Aug 7	Aug 8	Aug 9	Aug 10
Breathless France, 1959		Sullivan’s Travels USA, 1941		The 400 Blows France, 1959
Aug 11	Aug 12	Aug 13	Aug 14	Aug 15	Aug 16	Aug 17
The Seventh Seal Sweden, 1956		La Soledad Spain, 2007		Be Kind, Rewind USA, 2008
Aug 18	Aug 19	Aug 20	Aug 21	Aug 22	Aug 23	Aug 24
XXY Argentina, 2007		Planet Terror USA, 2007		Death Proof USA, 2007
Aug 25	Aug 26	Aug 27	Aug 28	Aug 29	Aug 30	Aug 31
Querelle Germany, 1982		Arsenic and Old Lace USA, 1944		Ratatouille USA, 2007
Sep 1	Sep 2	Sep 3	Sep 4	Sep 5	Sep 6	Sep 7
La Notte Italy, 1961		Some Like It Hot USA, 1959		There Will Be Blood USA, 2007

We wrote about the T-Shirt Festival a couple weeks ago, and the line-up has just recently been announced. Looks pretty exciting… Primal Scream, <<rinôçérôse>> and Groove Armada are all appearing.

<<rinôçérôse>>

It looks like there will be three stages. Here’s the full lineup:
escenario XL
Primal Scream, <<rinôçérôse>>, Najwajean, Fangoria, Jet Lag, Poet in Progress, Polar, Erick Morillo, Groove Armada (dj set), Fedde Le Grand, Mark Knight, Todd Terry

escenario M (Defected in the House)
The Shapeshifters, Sandy Rivera, Copyright, TFC, Roog (Hardsoul), Simon Dunmore, Shovell (live on percussion)

escenario S (Playboy Cabaret)
Jay-J, Danny Marquez, David Gausa, Southmen, Simone, Geena

Jet Lag

2-day tickets cost €94, and the festival takes place on the 19th and 20th of September.

More Info at the Official Website
Our Earlier Post about the Festival

This past weekend, the Maritime District was the scene of Valencia’s Moors & Christians celebrations, which are a part of the Feria de Julio.

XIII Entry of the Moors & Christians from Valencia Blog on Vimeo.

Events occurred throughout the weekend, including a mock beach battle on Friday night, and the concluding entrada on Saturday evening. We missed the battle, but were there for the extremely colorful and entertaining parade, which proceeded down Calle La Reina to Plaza Armada Española.

It took a little time to get going — after the initial marching band passed, we thrilled to 15 minutes of nothing — but it turned into one of Valencia’s better parades. The music was nice, tinged with a bit of the Orient, and the costumes were shiny and ornate. And who can ask for more than shiny, ornate costumes?!

After the parade, we hurried down to the America’s Cup port for fireworks over the ocean.

I’ll give you one guess as to how Valencians welcome the month of July.

Hopefully you said “By Throwing a Crazy, Weeks-Long Fiesta”. If not, you haven’t been paying attention. This is the city which celebrates almost anything. It’s Tuesday, let’s dance on the street! My kid just lost his first tooth… ¡Mascletà! Your dentist appointment went well??!!! Lemme go get my Fallera dress on!

La Feria de Julio officially kicks off tomorrow, July 2nd, with a set of traditional music in the Plaza de la Virgen, followed by fireworks (surprise!). Events occur every day throughout the month, until the 27th.

The Feria is Valencia’s best attempt to discourage its citizens from fleeing the summer heat. Really, it’s just a huge collection of random, officially-sanctioned events at 27 venues throughout the city. The selection of things to do is staggering, and far too expansive to list in detail here. We suggest picking up a free guide to the festival at any of the city’s Tourist Offices (available in English).

We’ve already highlighted a few must-see events, such as the maritime entrance of the Christians & Moors, various fireworks, the street performances during the Gran Nit de Juliol (Sunday, Jul 12) and, yes, Ball Dancing for the Elderly. Hot summer nights, my homey.

One question to our native Valencian readers — what is the Fallero Truc & Lado tournament? Googling this term results in 0 hits, although various Truc & Lado tournaments will be staged in the Jardines del Palau throughout the month!

A spanish-only guide to events can be found at the Feria’s Official Webpage

On the evening of June 23rd, Spaniards all along the southern coast flock to the beaches to celebrate the Día de San Juan, by burning all their old, unwanted items and drinking themselves silly.

As often happens, the mixing of small, manageable bonfires and young, drunk people results in a night full of fire-jumping.

Source: Levante-EMT.es

We’re a few days late on this, but were just at Malvarrosa and can report that they’ve done an admirable job of cleaning up the beach. Valencia is really on the ball when it comes to keeping itself tidy.

Check out the slide show from Levante, for some great images from San Juan:

Slide Show from Levante

We wrote about the Cinema Jove just couple of days ago. Turns out that all open air films are shown at the Viveros Garden. So we went on the first night to watch [REC], which was really fun.

The next day, we went to see the opening film in competition, giving me the opportunity to snap some images inside of the the Teatro Principal (location):

Everyone dressed up and ready:

Quick interview of a filmmaker:

Ok let’s go in :

The inside of the theater is beautiful:

We got to see the movie El Káseron (The Big House) which was rather bad but the event itself was exciting and fun.

More information in Cinema Jove: Official Webpage

Hey there, Hippie! Where are you headed to, on your wacky Hippiebike?

Of course, the Hippie festival! That makes sense.

This past weekend, scarves, dreadlocks, nose rings, body odor, and the people who love such things convened in the Turia riverbed for Valencia’s 21st Alternative Festival. We ventured down, and were happy to discover a really fun collection of stands, products and entertainment.

Organic chocolates, beers, breads… Valencian tomatoes… clothing, bags, jewelry… anything your inner alternative child could possibly want. We met a German bread-maker who had traveled to Valencia to sell her baked goods, and sampled some of the organic beer on hand.

It was a lot of fun — more for the people-watching than anything else. A note, though, to the dreadlocked white dude wearing a Jamaican stocking cap and practicing capoeira from Brazil — keep your cultures straight! Does simply embracing the stereotypical symbols of well-known countries make a person “alternative”? Would a Spanish woman dressed in a sari, doing a Polka dance be as cool & hip as the capoeira Jamaica dude?

And a note to the girl who yelled at us for taking a picture of her stand… Fine! No mention on HolaValencia.net for your stupid clothes. Who’s crying now?!

Link to the Festival’s Official Page

Location on our Valencia Map