Snapshots of the Hogueras festival 2014

The night of the 24th of June marked the end of the Hogueras de San Juan festival in Alicante with the huge palmera firework lighting up the sky at midnight from the Santa Barbara castle indicating the start of the lighting of the more than 180 bonfires around the city streets.

So as not to bore you with an explination of the events and activities during the annual Hogueras festival, I will just post some photos of from this year.  

The winner of the best bonfire (hoguera) this year went to...

PAN'S LABYRINTH BONFIRE

The Pan's Labyrinth Hoguera won in it's category.  It was so amazing to see in real life and a shame that burned to the ground like all the rest.

Here are just a few of the other large bonfires:

on the Rambla

in the Plaza de la Montañeta

the official bonfire in front of the town hall

These are the 2014 'Bellesas del Foc' with one part of the flower offering in front of the co-cathedral St. Nicholas.

Here are some photos taken from the Castillo San Fernando in Alicante at about 2am during the fiestas where you can see the city lit up by the various barracas.  It's a shame there is no sound with these photos because its quite bonkers... you can hear the different music from the dozens of party zones and the general fiesta ambience which goes on until 4.30am.  After that time the party does continue for some people but the music has to officially stop at this hour.

And finally a couple of photos taken from the other side of the San Fernando castle at 2pm during the Mascletà...

I hope you enjoyed the fiesta!