Journalist Pere Valenciano named master of ceremonies for Sagunto Falleras Majors event
Journalist Pere Valenciano will be the mantenedor (master of ceremonies) at the Exaltación of Sagunto's Falleras Majors, organised by the Federación Junta Fallera de Sagunto (FJFS), on Saturday 26 September at 18:00 in the Roman Theatre of Sagunto.
Empar Ríos and Maria Pozuelo, the Falleras Majors of Sagunto (the leading female figures of the city's Fallas festival) will have one of the most special days of their year this Saturday. The Exaltación — a formal ceremony that publicly honours them — will take place on 26 September at 18:00 in the Teatro Romano (Roman Theatre), one of Sagunto's most striking venues. The ceremony is organised by the Federación Junta Fallera de Sagunto (FJFS), the body that groups the city's Fallas neighbourhood associations, and this year's mantenedor — the person who gives the ceremony's keynote speech — will be journalist Pere Valenciano.
Valenciano has spent more than fifteen years covering local news across the Comunitat Valenciana (the Valencian Community). He studied Journalism at CEU San Pablo University in Moncada and later completed an Executive MBA at the University of Barcelona, as well as a master's degree to teach English. He began his career in print and local television, working for Las Provincias and Tele 7 Calderona, where he specialised in municipal and district news — the same kind of reporting that now brings him to the Roman Theatre stage.
In 2010 he founded El Periódico de Aquí, a local news outlet that later grew into a publishing group with editions covering every district of the Valencian Community. Under his direction, the outlet became known for its close coverage of festivals, the Fallas, and the region's intangible cultural heritage, paying particular attention to neighbourhood festival associations and local theatre. He has also worked in radio, hosting interview and current-affairs programmes, and has helped organise journalism conferences, audiovisual awards and public debate events. That background, built on covering community and cultural life up close, explains why the FJFS chose him to accompany Ríos and Pozuelo at their exaltation.
The FJFS itself has a longer history than many residents may remember. It was founded in 1971, although it did not become fully operational until the 1972/73 season, and its first president was Luis Cuadau Marco. More than five decades later, the federation now brings together thirty Fallas neighbourhood associations (called comisiones) from Sagunto, Puerto de Sagunto, Gilet and Faura — a scale that shows how large the network behind Saturday's ceremony has grown.
The Exaltación symbolically opens the new Fallas season for the federation's member associations. It is the moment when the Falleras Majors are formally recognised in their role, ahead of a calendar of events that will run for months, leading up to the next Fallas festival in March. For the associations and their families, the ceremony is usually a must-attend event, and holding it at the Roman Theatre — one of the city's most visited monuments — adds an extra layer of formality.
The Roman Theatre is not just any venue for this kind of ceremony: besides hosting events like this one, it is also the annual home of the Ludi Saguntini festival, one of the city's most recognised cultural events, which adds symbolic weight to the FJFS choosing this space for the Exaltación. From this Saturday, Ríos and Pozuelo will represent Sagunto at Fallas calendar events over the coming months, a role that will continue until the next Fallas festival.
Neither the FJFS nor the announcement have said whether the event is open to the wider public beyond invited associations, or whether tickets are required, so anyone wishing to attend should check directly with the FJFS before Saturday. No further details about the rest of the programme have been released; the focus remains on the mantenedor's speech and the formal recognition of the city's two Falleras Majors.
According to fjfs.es.