Chris Nation Photography

The complexity and detail is astonishing, as is the scale. This tableau is three stories high. I live in barrio El Pilar, so this is 'my' is falla.

Harlequin is some 2.5m long.

This falla of the barrio El Pilar is a regular prize-winner.

The streets and squares are packed with crowds circulating round the fallas in all parts of the city.


HM Queen Elizabeth of The United Kingdom. The figure, holding a Union flag and saw, represents The Queen cutting Britain off from Europe - Brexit. The sign on the lower left reads, in Valenciano, "The hoteliers will be sad. And who will there be to get drunk and jump off balconies?"

This enormous tableau features a conflation of Dracula and Venetian masquerade. As with all the tableau, there are smaller sub-plots amongst the giant figures.

The workmanship and attention to detail and finish is flawless.

This small sub-plot tableau [part of the Dracula falla] has the butler saying to the fat lady "Here is a selection of masks but I regret I do not have the solution to the problem"

This strange tableau, with the naked girls - one covered in blood - wearing animal head dresses, was beleived by a Valenciano friend to be about animal welfare.

In Ruzaffa, the area of the central city just south of the old town, the grid layout has no spacious squares, so the fallas tableau are, like this one, built on cross roads.

In another topical tableau, part of the preceding falla, Ex-Queen Sophia is taking shears to ex-King Juan Carlos in retribution for his infidelities. Two of his mistresses can be seen on the badges on his chest.

This gigantic figure, some 20m high, was the falla placed in front of the City Hall.

A conflation of the Conquistadors and Pirates of The Caribbean. The figure on the right in a black and white striped Jeep shirt is the footballer, Ronaldo.

This vast tableau celebrates showbiz. There is The Lion King and Cats, with smaller figures of topical interest. The three figures in the foreground are ex-Queen Sofia, ex-King Juan Carlos and, tugging at Juan Carlos's tail, his mistress - perhaps the one who is alleged to have received a gift of €65 million from him.


US President Donald Trump is here depicted as one with dictators Franco, Stalin and Hitler.

Many of the tableau and ninots [the figures] are highly political. Here Donald Trump and The Devil are waiting to be placed in position as part of the next falla.
