Fallas may take place in July, say Valencia regional authorities

As yet, nothing has been confirmed, but the massive fiesta which takes over the city for a week until March 19 is such a deeply-rooted part of the region's culture and is such an enormous source of income that those involved are unlikely to let the matter drop until they know they will be able to celebrate it at some point in 2020.

Gigantic papier mâché statues the height of a four- or five-storey block of flats, featuring caricatures of politicians and celebrities and satirising current affairs, each with its own marquée or casal where the falleras and falleros, or fiesta club members, eat, drink and party around the clock dressed in traditional regional costume for the best part of a week, and daily gunpowder banger displays or mascletaes giving off clouds of coloured smoke, all bring in tourists from across the country and even from around the world.

Not as well-known globally as Sevilla's Feria de Abril, or 'April Fair', or the Semana Santa (Easter week) parades, nor even as famous as the Tomatina in Buñol just inland from Valencia, the Fallas nevertheless act as a major worldwide visitor magnet for those who know about them due to their lively, noisy and colourful nature.

Every year sees about €500-700 million pouring into Valencia city alone in the week leading up to the cremà (burning) of the fallas, or monuments, on the night of March 19.

That's not counting the fact that almost every town and village, even tiny hamlets, in the province of Valencia, several in the south of Castellón province and a handful in northern Alicante province also celebrate the Fallas festival, meaning over half the residents in the Comunidad Valenciana region live in a town where the fiesta happens.

It was announced today that the Fallas in Valencia would not go ahead, for the first time since the Civil War and only the fifth time in history, as a precaution to help stop the spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus.

Even though the risk of contagion in other, smaller towns throughout the region is very small, the entire fiesta has been called off in all three provinces.

But monuments already set up may well be burnt down as scheduled anyway, albeit in a restricted manner and avoiding crowds.

And the region and its falleras and falleros are not willing to let 2020 go down as the first year in most of our lifetimes when the Fallas failed to happen.

For this reason, the health authority and other regional government figures are considering moving the Fallas to between July 15 and 19.

At least, at that time of year, great weather will be guaranteed, although a lot of the acts are likely to have to take place at night as it will be too hot for falleras to go on parade in the daytime with their heavy brocade-and-braid damask dresses, herring-bone crinolines and tight bodices.

Anyone who has purchased a train season ticket for Fallas week will get a refund if they apply, or the option to switch it for different dates.