Camp de Morvedre falles hold gathering and paella cooking contest
Falles committees from Camp de Morvedre held a community day on Saturday 5 September with the Trobades gathering and the paella cooking contest, organised by the Federació Junta Fallera de Sagunt.
Falles committees (neighbourhood associations that organise Valencia's traditional Fallas festival) across the Camp de Morvedre district held a community day on Saturday 5 September, organised by the Federació Junta Fallera de Sagunt (FJFS — the federation that represents Sagunto's falles committees). The event brought together committees from across the municipality around two of the highlights of its cultural calendar: the Trobades and the paella cooking contest.
The Trobades are regular gatherings between the federation's falles committees, meant as a chance for socialising between the different neighbourhoods and groups that make up Sagunto's falles community, beyond the strict competition of the March festivities. They usually take the form of cross-visits between casals fallers (the committees' clubhouses), with an exchange of food traditions, music and shared time, helping build friendships between committees that spend the rest of the year competing for the same audience and prizes. The paella cooking contest, for its part, is one of the most popular food-related activities on the falles calendar: different committees prepare their own paella and share a table in a festive atmosphere that strengthens ties between falles members from different groups. Across many falles federations in the Valencian Community, this kind of cooking contest has become almost as established a tradition as the Cremà itself, the ritual burning of the falles monuments that closes the March festivities. Beyond the food, Trobades usually also include street parades, live music and time spent together between each committee's falleras majors and fallers majors — the young women and men chosen to represent their committee for the whole season.
Although most falles activity is concentrated in March, with the Cremà and other official events, the FJFS keeps a parallel calendar of gatherings like this one running all year round, helping keep Camp de Morvedre's committees connected between one edition and the next. Falles, recognised by Unesco as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016, are not limited to the days around March: the casals fallers work as small neighbourhood social centres throughout the year, hosting open-air dances, communal meals and events such as this Trobades and paella day. These informal get-togethers, without the pressure of official competition, are also often when younger committees get to introduce themselves to the rest of the federation. The paella cooking contest, in particular, has become over the years one of the most photographed moments of these gatherings, with charcoal fires and rice dishes spread across different spots set up by the host committees, in a format that favours a family atmosphere over strict competitive rivalry. Camp de Morvedre brings together falles committees from Sagunto's town centre, from Puerto de Sagunto and from other towns in the district, each with its own neighbourhood identity, its own casal and its own programme of events, all coordinated under the FJFS.
It is worth explaining that each falles committee is, at its core, a voluntary neighbourhood association: it has its own list of members, is funded mainly through fees paid by falleros and falleras (committee members) and local sponsorships, and stays active all year round, not just in March. That is why gatherings like the Trobades matter so much: they keep these associations alive during the off-season and lay the groundwork for the next festival cycle. For residents of Camp de Morvedre, including its foreign-born population, days like this one are also a chance to get closer to Valencian traditions before the official falles season begins.
According to the report from elperiodic.com, the day brought together representatives of Camp de Morvedre's falles committees, though the outlet has not so far detailed how many committees took part or who won the cooking contest. The FJFS is the body that coordinates and represents all of the municipality's falles committees, organising events throughout the year, from preparations for the March festivities to community gatherings like this one. Like other local falles federations across the Valencian Community, the FJFS also acts as a link between grassroots committees and the region-wide falles structure, passing on calls for contests, exhibitions and official events that mark out the falles year.
Events like this one often double as informal preparation for the falles season, keeping the committees' community life active during the months without official festivities. More details on participation and results from this edition of the paella contest are expected once the FJFS or local media provide a fuller report. For Camp de Morvedre's falles committees, days like this one also work as an informal gauge of each group's community spirit before the official season gets under way, when neighbourhoods and outlying areas of the municipality once again compete with their own monuments and events. According to elperiodic.com.