Les Fogueres de Sant Joan (Las Hogueras de San Juan) or The Bonfires of St John is a major city festival that is celebrated with fire, sound, and parades around midsummer (the week of the 24th June) in Alicante, Spain. I avoided this festival over the past few years because it’s too hot for me, but I decided to give it a chance this year.
What are Les Fogueres exactly?
Like a lot of Christian festivals, this festival has pagan origins, when people used to light bonfires on the longest day of the year, to burn old, unwanted things that no longer belonged in their lives. People also jumped over bonfires and used firecrackers to ward off spirits.
This still usually happens around the summer solstice around the 21st June, in many coastal areas in Spain and Portugal.
Inspired by Las Fallas in Valencia celebrated in March, this modern version of the festival was founded by Jose Maria Py in 1928. There were 9 fogueres around the city that year.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of fogueres in Alicante. The bonfires are actually huge satirical monuments made of wood and papier mache, which are narratives on society and famous public figures. Each neighbourhood association organises fundraisers as these can cost over 60,000 euros for the special category.
Local artisans and designers (foguerers) build these massive sculptures as a team. It takes an entire neighbourhood to make this. During the festival, the foguerers have meals and drinks in a special area next to their sculptures (barraca).
For visitors, you can mingle with locals at racos which are open to everyone with live music all night and food and drink on sale.
The highlight of the festival is La Crema when they are all burned as huge bonfires on the night of the 24th June starting with the official one in front of the city hall.
Why You Should Put Les Fogueres on Your Bucket List
First of all, I do not recommend bringing small children and pets to this festival.
For people coming from certain countries, you will be shocked when you see 5-year-olds throwing petardos (firecrackers bought by their parents) at you on the streets.
But if you are adventurous, and not sensitive to noise and crowds, this can be a thrilling experience and worth doing once. I went to Las Fallas the year I moved to Spain.
The one in Alicante is a bit smaller but with some similarities. They have the following traditions:
La Mascleta
I was on the beach in Valencia, quite a distance from the city when I heard my first mascleta. I’ve never been in a war zone, but I thought that we were being attacked. Seriously.
The sound was so powerful, I couldn’t imagine going to the main square to watch it so close.
The mascleta is an orchestra conducted by blowing up sometimes over 100kg of gunpowder and firecrackers with colours. The experience is not very visual as it happens daily at 2pm for a week.
But it’s more of an embodied experience, as you feel the power of the firecrackers in your chest, and splitting your eardrums with the tremendous sound. Plus you have the searing heat of June with no shade.
I’m staying about 500m away with my windows closed and I regret not using my Loop earplugs today.
Some brands give out fans and hats and the firemen hose down the spectators (another tradition called la bagna), especially since this year is the hottest festival in years.
A Beauty Pageant (Belleas del Foc)
Think Princess Leia from Star Wars crossed with Game of Thrones. George Lucas was obviously inspired by the hair and ear adornments from the region of Valencia.
Young women and children (there are two categories) have a competition and also have a posse of their own maids of honour (damas de honor) and sometimes have a male escort for the parade too. They represent one of the fogueres.
There are many parades and the big one is when they walk through the city and offer flowers to the patron saint Virgin of Remedies.
St John Parades - Like Carnival Again in June
There are two parades worth seeing: the opening one where each neighbourhood creates their own costumes with special themes, almost like a carnival atmosphere.
The closing parade on the 23rd June features the Ladies of the Festival on floats in their traditional costumes. In addition, local immigrant groups are also represented like Ukraine, Georgia, Mexico, Argentina, etc.
La Crema (The Burning)
This is the night after the Bonfire Night of St John’s Eve (24th June in the evening).
At midnight, they have a palm tree firework display from the Santa Barbara Castle, then the burning of the fogueres begins!
They start with the one in the main city hall square then the burning is done in sets until 3am. This gives the firemen enough time to go around the city and help control the fires.
There is a schedule so you can plan to see your favourite one going up in smoke.
I chose to see my local one called Llum (Light) which won 3rd prize and the night started off with a gorgeous fireworks display. Then they burned the children’s sculpture. Half an hour later, they started burning the main one.
Towards the end, people started screaming as the firemen hosed down the crowds to help them cool down in the humid night in front of the flames (la bagna, bath tradition).
Fireworks Competition for 5 Nights
Although there are fireworks daily during the mascleta, after La Crema, there is a daily fireworks competition from Postiguet Beach for at least 15 minutes starting at midnight (the evening of the 25th to the 29th June).
This is well worth staying up for as there are no more firecrackers on the street. It’s completely safe for families to attend. You can grab a picnic spot on the beach or just watch anywhere within a few kilometres.
One evening, I couldn’t go down to the beach and I still managed to see a bit from my kitchen window on the 6th floor.
Conclusion
I wholeheartedly recommend experiencing Les Fogueres in Alicante once in your life (unless you’re scared of firecrackers or crowds). It’s a bucket list experience for sure.
The people are friendly, the sculptures are creative and beautiful, and the atmosphere is very welcoming and safe.
Alicante is also the rice capital of Spain so it’s a good place to try rice dishes with meat or seafood (arroz, not paella).
Les Fogueres is an amazing subject for travel photography because each sculpture is a beautiful, carefully designed snapshot about the world at large. I will have a follow up post on the top 10 fogueres that I visited as they deserve their own post.
It is definitely the biggest, craziest, secret midsummer festival in the world.
All photos taken on my Pixel 8 Pro - unedited
