HOGUERAS in Alicante

HOGUERAS is much more that you can imagine. It is about music, fireworks, firecrakers, light, color, dancing, people everty time in the street, good atmosphere and, of course, our monuments or statues.

The HOGUERAS period starts from the 20th to the 24th of June, every year in the Southeast city of Spain, Alicante. Alicante is a very turistic city, with a great new airport connected to many countries in the world. Beautiful beaches, good weather, great food, and above all, our local festivities; the Hogueras of Saint John.

From the 15th to the 19th: Pre-Hogueras period

The 15th of June is the day when the girl representing Alicante during that year, the Bellea del foc d´Alacant, officially starts the Hogueras with her speech. This always happens the previous friday of the 20th of June. The weekend after that speech, called "el pregón", there are a serie of parades. On saturday every Hoguera in Alicante (there are 90!) dressed up with the traditional dress of the city, the Alicantina or Zaragüel dresses (showed in the picture).

 Also, the day after that, on Sunday, every hoguera (which represents every neighbour in the city) dressed with costumes that will mean something from thier own monument and they do the parede around Alicante (show one costume in the picture below from the Hoguera Hernán Cortés, during this 2013).

After that non-stop weekend comes what we call "la plantà" that menas the building of the monuments (one for the adults and one for the children of each hoguera) during the next couple of days:

This is the beginning of a complete full of fun week (at least) :)  This has just began! Next post will show the HOGUERAS period understood from the 20th to the 24th of June that includes firecrakers (or Mascletà), more parades (or desfiles), the finished monuments (or Hogueras), music, food, the cliff-hanger when the monuments are in flames (what it is called "the cremà), and much much more fun!