Spain

Burning of the fogueres

At midnight on June 24th, the Fogueres de Sant Joan celebrates the “Crema” which is burning of the fogueres. The first foguere that is burnt is at the Ayuntamiento de Alicante (City Hall). A very large group of people gather at the Ayuntamiento de Alicante to wait for the official start which is the fireworks launched from the Castillo de Santa Bárbara in a palm tree design.

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crowd gathering at city hall for the crema

It was so crowded that we were not able to get close enough to see the foguere at city hall, which is approximately 4 storeys high and very beautiful.

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City hall foguere before it was burnt

We worked our way to the next foguere which was just around the corner from city hall. There was a large crowd there as well, but we managed to see most of the foguere being burnt.

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Foguere before it was burnt

https://youtu.be/MYgz7cIXu7o

Large crowds of people party and follow the  bomberos throughout the entire city.  Each foguere is loaded up with fireworks and then set off to start the foguere on fire. We followed a few of the fogueres on the way home but the crowds were too big to see the foguere on fire. We decided to head home and wait for the burning of our local foguere.

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Shelley and Ray at the local foguere in their neighbourhood at 3 a.m.

Shortly after 4 a.m. the bomberos arrived and our local foguere was set on fire. The video below captured the burning of our local foguere at 4 a.m.

https://youtu.be/pmUetDD5RfE

It was a very busy and interesting week. The festival is the biggest one of the year and attracts thousands of people. We are glad we were here to enjoy it.

“adios y que tengo un gran dia”