Carlos Guisasola Madrid
Madrid
Updated Thursday, February 15, 2024-00:04
Pyrotechnics Almeida's controversial 'mascletà' divides the neighbors: "Let him take it to Cibeles, there is green life here"
Llanera de Ranes is a small town of just over 1,000 inhabitants, an hour's drive from Valencia. A couple of kilometers from the center, sectioning the A-7, is the Pirotecnia Valenciana company. The name probably doesn't mean anything to you, but they have been experiencing weeks of frenzy there because of Madrid. From that point on the map, during the early hours of Sunday, 307 kilos of gunpowder will leave for the capital, distributed in three vans, to draw the first Madrid
mascletà
. An exotic event patented by José Luis Martínez-Almeida, which is surrounded by noise (and not by what the material can generate) and controversy. Birds that could die from the noise, an ecosystem in danger from the smoke, the risk of fire in the surrounding vegetation... Furthermore, the opposition has been criticizing the secrecy and municipal improvisation of a tradition that has nothing to do with the city for days.
There is no one better than
José Manuel Crespo
(48 years old), pyrotechnic guru and manager of the company that will make the shot on Sunday (1:00 p.m.), to provide light and banish (or not) fears. Let's start with fears. «I have been shooting mascletàs all my life and they have never harmed animals. I have even heard that they go to collect birds with shovels; "They will have to rectify." And it reminds GRAN MADRID of some recent experiences. «We recently shot next to a duck pond and at no time was there any natural damage. In my factory I have dogs that live with the tests and 50 meters away there is a pigeon ring. Nobody has complained. There is also no risk of fire due to the materials we use.
Crespo provides some of the keys to an act that is handled with stealth in the Cibeles offices. Just yesterday, they were keeping the details under lock and key. «Both the mascletá file and the reports are awaiting approval and final approval. Therefore, the file is still being formed,” Almeida, the ideologue of the act, argued yesterday in response to the opposition.
"The closer, the more it feels"
But let's give the voice back to the master pyrotechnician. «It will be similar to a big day in the last week of Fallas. Last year I shot
mascletàs
weighing more than
200 kilos
and in Madrid we are going to shoot 307 kilos. The difference responds to the aerial effects (they weigh more) that there will be and not to the sound.
A worker assembles some of the artifacts.EM
There will be
100 linear meters
on the Madrid Río esplanade, where there will be
3,000 firing orders
. The acoustic and visual explosion will last seven minutes, somewhat longer than usual in Valencia. In total, 5,000 square meters of boundaries for assembly and, from there, another security cordon. «The closer, the more it feels. So far no one has gone deaf in Valencia. “We will do it with the same care and affection,” adds Crespo. The assembly of the devices, which will take about six hours, will be carried out at dawn: "As there are athletes and people walking, we want to have it ready early."
The
Madrid
mascletà
, first and (in principle) last, will be held in an open space, nothing to do with the Valencian stage. Will that affect the sound? «Evidently, it will not have that sound, that is why we have prepared a more visual
mascletà
. "We are going to fire aerial effects that will make up for the lack of resonance." Three workers have dedicated themselves to this for a month. There will be cartridges, whistles, warning thunder...
Where everything was created
Dozens of Fallas groups with hundreds of Valencians will travel to the Puente del Rey over the weekend. Among them, a complete bus with 50 seats, which will depart at 6:30 a.m. from the capital of Turia to witness the live acoustic and visual show. The members of the Expósito-Micer Mascó falla, last year's winners of the first prize, will travel there, with
Manolo Mas
, its president, at the helm. «Here (in Valencia) the
mascletà
does not understand ideology, we all enjoy it. "You are going to enjoy it and there are no risks because the pyrotechnicians have everything under control," says the former press officer for the great Valencia in the two Leagues and two Champions League finals at the dawn of the 21st century. But also remember that in the Levantine city, longer
mascletàs
have been held
next to the Oceanogràfic, with color and noise, and, despite previous complaints about the animals, nothing happened.
Almeida, along with Carlos Mazón and María José Catalá, in the Fallas 2023.EM
It was precisely in the bowels of his group that the surprising act that appears on the Madrid horizon was conceived. «Almeida came to eat last year. He was in the mood for paella, but, coincidentally, he had grilled. He said that he had enjoyed it a lot and that the people of Madrid had to experience it. And that if he and María José (Catalá) won the elections, he would make a
mascletà
to unite the two cities. And, indeed, he has taken the step forward.
On Sunday, at 1:00 p.m., the first fireworks show
made in Valencia
will be lit in Madrid. On the Puente del Rey, next to Almeida, the Valencian councilor, María José Catalá, will be there, along with the major falleras and her courts of honor. Until then, mystery and noise will continue to accompany the route of this first (and last?)
mascletà
in the history of the capital.