Nederlandse Pyro-gemeenschap in de lokale krant van Valencia

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The passion for the mascletà sister to 500 Dutch​

For ten years, these followers of pyrotechnics have become friends with their reunions in the cathedral of gunpowder

His name is Chris Noorlander. He is a fan of pyrotechnics , but his name already gives clues: he is not Valencian, but from Holland . For ten years , he has not missed an appointment with the powder cathedral during the fallas , on the corner in front of the Post Office building . He comes to enjoy the shots but also to meet up with friends ; with those he has met, over the last decade, waiting behind the fences of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de València. The mascletà has brought them together and, every March, they meet again in the same place, on the same dates, at the same time and for the same purpose: "forenjoy the best pyrotechnic show "; that's how he defines it.

This month of March is similar to many, but at the same time different. After two years, they are also experiencing the failures of "Renaix la flame" , the first after the outbreak of the pandemic. From eleven o'clock in the morning , they talk sitting down -either on the floor or on some low-height stools- while they laugh, have fun and drink to refresh themselves. There is no lack of a bucket full of beers and the occasional soft drink, even if they do not comply with the recommendations of the authorities. During the almost three hours of waiting, they have time to dance to the rhythm of 'Valencia en fallas' and 'Mediterrània'.
They are a group of about fifteen people -all of them are boys, with the exception of a woman, a partner of one of them-, but they only represent the nearly "500 Dutch" who come to Valencia to be shaken by the pyrotechnics. Chris landed in Valencia on March 10 and, since then, has not missed a single shot; he alone canceled due to the wind, last Monday, March 14 . The rest of the fifty Dutch people who meet in front of the Post Office building have been arriving gradually. They come from different cities in the Netherlands, spend the night in different hotels and interact in disparate groups. But they have one thing in common: they all meet on that same corner, even if they don't know each other.. It is already a tradition.

Passion for gunpowder, wherever it is​

"We Dutch love gunpowder. We enjoy castles, but above all we are passionate about mascletà " , he says. The reason? "Because of its rhythm, noise and intensity," she confesses. Even so, in his visits to the València fallera, they do not miss the appointment with the night shots in the old riverbed ; and they also do not decline to entertain themselves with other types of activities such as tourist and cultural visits, gastronomic plans, visits to Fallas monuments or participation in other celebrations such as the offering or the award ceremony, although as mere spectators.
The 'cap i casal' is not the only city that he and his group of friends who follow gunpowder visit each year. They also meet again in Alicante for the Bonfires of San Juan, in the month of June; and they also do not fail to some pyrotechnic shows in Italy . But, among all these destinations, his favorite is, without a doubt, Valencia. It's the mascletà's fault.

A fault web portal in Dutch​

Chris's fondness for fallas is such that he has a website specialized in the Valencian festival , 'Fallas Festival' ; in Dutch. In it, he publishes news reporting on different aspects of the festival -there is also space for the monuments and the cremà- although, mainly, the content revolves around gunpowder. He does it from his point of view, from his experience of more than ten years visiting Valencia in fallas.
It does not lack detail but, mainly, it is nourished by extensive galleries of photographs that Chris has taken during his many visits to the city. The website is, without a doubt, a faithful reflection of the Fallas festival and its main acts, such as the Crida, the offering of flowers or the cremà; but the great protagonist is, how could it be otherwise, the mascletà.