El Noche del Fuego

The town has quite a few festivals throughout the year. We'd missed a Jazz Festival by one day on our arrival and I was around, for the series of concerts of Baroque Classical Music taking place in the castle each evening, at 10.30pm. Each night a large brazier was lit on the roof of the castle at the start of each concert.



To announce the start of the concerts, a large Firework Display was set to music, organised by the local experts Pirotecnia Tomas. I'd seen the guys setting up the fireworks on the beach over a couple of days. Lots of folks drove in from other towns and villages as this was quite a spectacle.

Everything in a plastic bag is explosive!



I headed up to the castle ramparts for a good view, and as they began at midnight, stopped at a shop to buy some water. My diversion meant that I passed by one of the speakers, which was powered up, and I wondered if the folks sitting nearby really understood just how much sound would come out of the tower, as it was huge.

Think rock concert.



The local police kept chasing me from each ledge I sat on, for being too close, and I eventually sat on one of the walls within the citadel, along with quite a few others.

When the fireworks began, I practically fell off my ledge, which would have been a bit serious. I thought I was used to the level of explosives in Spain, but these were bigger and better than any I had seen before.

I never did hear any of the music, and covered in the remains of fireworks and soot, I cycled back through the town at 1am, to see the temperature on an outside digital thermometer showing 25c. Perhaps I should have made it an all-nighter, there were still folks heading into the old town, instead I wove through the large traffic jam and headed back. My ears were ringing and I'm really not surprised!