Around 75,000 people packed onto Valencia's beaches last night to welcome summer the way the city always has — with fire, a midnight swim and a wish thrown to the flames.
The Nit de Sant Joan — Saint John's Eve — falls on the night of 23 June, just after the year's longest day, and is the night Valencians treat as the real start of summer. The Malva-rosa and El Cabanyal are its heart, and by midnight the sand was a line of bonfires from one end of the promenade to the other.
Many people jump bonfires, make wishes and head into the sea at midnight, where one popular tradition is to jump seven waves backwards for good luck.
None of it is staged for visitors. It's what the city does, and you're welcome to join in if you're here for it.
Behind the spectacle sat a serious operation. The council handed out more than 25 tonnes of firewood — offcuts from the city's tree-pruning — at nine points along the seafront, ran a field hospital on the Delfines esplanade, and put over a thousand staff and 300-plus police on the beaches through the night, with extra trams and buses running until dawn. Local authorities put the crowd at around 75,000.
By morning you'd hardly have known. Cleaning crews moved in from 4am, cleared the night's litter — some 58 tonnes of it — and had the sand raked and the beaches open again in time for the first swimmers.
Fires were allowed only in the marked zones on the Malva-rosa and El Cabanyal. They stay banned on the beaches of the Albufera Natural Park — Pinedo, El Saler, the Devesa and the rest — to protect the wetlands, worth knowing if you're planning your own night down here next year.
If you missed it, the date to mark is 23 June. Get to the Malva-rosa by tram in the evening, bring something to wrap up in for the early hours, and leave the glass bottles at home — they're not allowed on the sand.
And the sea doesn't stop being the centre of things once the embers die. Valencia spends its whole summer out on the water, and the easiest way to see the city from it is a sunset sail from the marina, cava in hand, as the waterfront lights come on.
Visit our Tours and Excursions section for more activities in Valencia.
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