04/06/2015
As a one-off exception the Town Hall of Alicante has acceded to the numerous requests for this year’s Fogueres festivities to officially begin one day early on Friday 19th June, in order for the street bars and restaurants to make the most of weekend custom.
The Fogueres festival is a riot of colour, merry-making, noise and, above all, fire, and is held in Alicante to mark the beginning of summer, attracting more and more visitors every year from outside the city.
Last weekend the Regional tourism board “planted” a “monumento fogueril” typical of the type of fogueras which will go up in flames on the Noche de San Jauan in Alicante as a promotional aid in the centro comercial Arturo Soria in Madrid, one of the most important shopping centres of the national capital.
The “Fogueres de Sant Joan” is a festival of International Tourist Status in the Province of Alicante and the tourist board are keen to maximise every opportunity to use the festival to bring more visitors to the Costa Blanca for the event.
The hoguera incorporated a number of references to the different leisure offerings of the Costa Blanca and was gloriously decorated with the addition of the Bellesa del Foc 2015 Carmen Caballero and her Maids of Honour, wearing traditional costume and distributing leaflets about the forthcoming fiestas.
The decision to allow the bars and restaurants to open early this year was almost a parting gesture by the outgoing councillor Andrés Llorens prior to the formation of a new local government, and in announcing it he thanked them for their whole-hearted support for one of Alicante’s best-known traditions. He also confirmed that preparations for the eleven figures competing in this year’s official plantà, in which giant papier mâché statues are erected in the city centre to be burnt later, can begin at midnight on 14th June.
The Fogueres de San Juan end as always on the night of 24th June, the saint’s feast day, when bonfires are lit all over Spain to provide protection from evil spirits and bad luck for the coming twelve months.
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