The municipal corporation of Sagunto has unanimously approved an institutional declaration during its ordinary plenary session in November, supporting the call for greater plurality and real territorial representation in the fallas monitoring committee. This demand has been advocated by the fallas community from towns and cities beyond Valencia and promoted locally by the Federació Junta Fallera Sagunt (FJFS).
The document, presented by FJFS president Aitor Muñoz, urges the Valencia City Council to ensure that local fallas boards and federations from the three provinces have representation on the committee. It also calls for the inclusion of voices from all sectors of the festival: falleras and falleros (participants in the fallas), fallas artists, pyrotechnicians, musicians, researchers, cultural entities, and territorial representatives.
Furthermore, the declaration demands transparency and objective criteria, stating that any changes to the composition of the committee should adhere to public, justified, and verifiable criteria, in line with principles of good governance. It highlights that UNESCO establishes community participation as a fundamental principle, which must be guaranteed in all decision-making bodies.
The declaration requests the Generalitat Valenciana to implement shared governance of the festival and to resume efforts to create an official fallas body at the regional level, capable of uniting all local boards and federations, ensuring a unique, plural, and balanced dialogue.
“Fallas are more than a festive calendar; they are a way of understanding the territory, a means of storytelling, and a living heritage that is renewed each year by the efforts of thousands of hands. The UNESCO recognition of Fallas as Intangible Cultural Heritage acknowledged this plural, diverse, and territorial reality. It is not a festival of a single location but a shared expression among fallas municipalities in Valencia, Alicante, and Castellón, which keep the tradition alive and actively participated in the process that led to international recognition,” the institutional declaration states.
“We also express our conviction that the future of the festival depends on open, plural, territorial, and shared representation. Honouring this international recognition means ensuring that all individuals and groups who keep the festival alive have a voice and presence in decisions that affect its development and projection. Fallas belong to all the towns that celebrate them, to all the people who make them possible, and their representation must reflect their entire diversity,” the text adds.
“In light of the current composition of the fallas monitoring committee, which does not adequately reflect this territorial plurality, we express the need for a model of representation that is true to the reality of the festival and its community spirit,” concludes the document's explanatory section.
The institutional declaration will be sent to the Valencia City Council, the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana, the Conselleria de Cultura, and the fallas monitoring committee as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
