The Castell de Alaquàs hosted on Tuesday the presentation of this joint sample in which the exhibitions were displayed for the first time. This exhibitions are created at the initiative of the Office of the Vice-Principal for Territorial Projection and Participation of the Universitat de València and have become real thanks to the sponsorship of Caixa Popular and the General Direction for Culture and Heritage of the Counsellor of Education, Research, Culture and Sport. The exhibitions are the result of the joint work and the collaboration of several Valencian City Halls. Both collections aim at bringing the festival heritage closer to citizens, as well as the historic and cultural richness and the audio-visual, natural, cultural, musical, artistic heritage of our territory. The vice-principal for Territorial Projection and Participation, Jorge Hermosilla; the General Director for Culture and Heritage, Carmen Amoraga; the mayoress of Alaquàs, Elvira García and the president of Caixa Popular, Benet Delcán, have attended to the inauguration event.

The 70 boards, which will be at the Castell de Alaquàs until 14 July, show the variety, richness and spectacularity of this inherited signs through explanatory texts, maps and graphic material on loan from the different city councils, institutions and associations of the Valencian territory. ‘From the Universitat de València we made a request to the local institutions to provide us with photographic identity documents of their villages and the response we have achieved has surpassed all our expectations. For instance, the Cultural and Studies Institute of the Rincón de Ademuz (Icera) made an appeal to the neighbours, even to those who have emigrated, in order to recuperate photographs of their traditional festivals’, has said the vice-principal Hermosilla in the presentation.

Regarding the texts that accompany the boards, the vice-principal has explained that the ones which are related to the traditional festivals have been elaborated by the technical team of the Support Unit of the Office of the vice-principal based on the 4 volumes of the publication ‘Calendario de fiestas de la Comunidad Valenciana’, a project directed by Antonio Ariño and Vicente L. Salavert (Universitat de València). On the other hand, the texts of the exhibition ‘El patrimonio cultural valenciano’ have been written by more than 20 experts of the UV in fields such as history, archaeology, sociology, geography and art. ‘In this way, our rich territory is studied from an multidisciplinary and plural perspective having as a point of departure the ‘Atlas del Patrimonio Cultural Valenciano’ published in 2010’ has affirmed Hermosilla.

The general director from Culture and Heritage, Carmen Amoraga, has highlighted that the exhibition is ‘an exhaustive data collection about festivals, traditions and cultural heritage of the Valencian people which has a double objective: to transfer the knowledge to future generations and to bring closer the culture and traditions to other towns and regions of the Valencian Community’. The mayoress of Alaquàs has highlighted the importance of this exhibition because ‘the traditional festivals are culture, tradition, commitment, identity, history and heritage. They are an example of a participative model and to participate means to take part in our intense and rich social life, of our history, of our current experiences and of our future’. The president of Caixa Popular, Benet Delcán, has highlighted the commitment of the financial entity with ‘people and territory’ and has underlined that initiatives like these ‘help to support and improve society’.

The boards will be in Alaquàs until 14 July and then the display will be divided into two exhibitions: ‘The traditional festivals of the Valencian territory’ and ‘The Valencian cultural heritage’. Both collections will go across the Valencian regions with the purpose of bringing the Valencian festive and cultural heritage to citizens. The exhibition about the traditional festivals will be shown at Requena, Ontinyent, Gandía, Benetússer, Buñol, Algemesí, Canals, Paterna, l’Eliana, Bétera y València. The exhibition related to the cultural heritage will be shown at Gandia, Llíria, Ademuz, Requena, Anna, Xàtiva, Sagunt, Torrent, Ayora, Alzira and València, among others.