The 'Crida' of the Fallas of 2024, which will be held next Sunday, March 25 at the Torres de Serranos - the event that kicks off the festivities - will have access controls to prevent the consumption of alcohol and, with this, try to prevent the event from becoming a "macro bottle", as well as to prevent access with pyrotechnic material.
"We are going to do everything we can," guaranteed yesterday the president of the Fallera Central Board (JCF) and councilor of Fallas, Santiago Ballester, in the plenary session of the entity held on Tuesday afternoon, during which he made a call to the Fallas commissions to prevent the Fallas themselves from bringing alcohol to the 'Crida'.
"If we ask that it not become a 'botellódromo', what we cannot do is have our failures go out with their carts - with bottles of alcohol. If we want it not to become that, let's transfer the presidents who do not let people out their falleros with alcohol, because if we don't set an example we won't be able to ask the rest to do the same," he reflected.
Ballester indicated that this Tuesday he had held a meeting with the Local Police in which the force told them that this year access controls will be installed to "avoid situations like those of last year", when crowds of people carried "bottles and even cars." .
"All of this will be requisitioned and, in this way, it will be possible to control that it does not happen," said the mayor, who stated that he hopes that the 'Crida' will develop "much better" than last year. He also announced that the device of both the Local and National Police will have plainclothes agents.
In any case, Ballester acknowledged that it is "very difficult" to control access to the area, around the Serrano Towers and next to the Turia Garden, since it is a "very open" space. In any case, he insisted that the objective is that the event "does not become what it was last year." As for schedules, there will be a prior setting from 5:30 p.m. and the formal event will begin at 8:00 p.m., after a show.
On the other hand, regarding the Offering to the Virgen de los Desamparados, which will be celebrated on March 17 and 18, the Celebrations area of the Fallera Central Board has reported that it has adopted "some new measures" to try to "meet the "established schedules" of the event, such as the increase in fencing both on the access route and in the final part of the parade or the lighting in the Plaza de la Virgen.
In addition, it has confirmed that regulated pedestrian crossings will be installed along the route, which will be located at points "agreed upon" by the Local Police and the City Council's Mobility area, "based on their indications."
