Lighting Up Tradition: Illuminating Valencia’s Las Fallas with IoT Innovation

What happens when modern technology meets ancient tradition? At Cloud Studio, we found the answer during Valencia’s famous Las Fallas festival. As this historic celebration lights up the city with art, fireworks, and cultural pride, it also raises important questions about environmental impacts. Partnering with LORIOT and Dragino, we’ve turned this iconic event into an innovative real-world lab, demonstrating how IoT solutions can monitor, understand, and ultimately help manage the festival’s environmental footprint. Here’s how technology and tradition came together during Valencia’s most spectacular celebration.

But first, let’s dive deeper into the heart of the Fallas tradition

Every March, Valencia undergoes a remarkable transformation as it hosts Las Fallas, a festival that seamlessly blends art, tradition, and community spirit. This UNESCO-recognized event has deep roots, originating from the Middle Ages when local carpenters would burn wooden scraps on the feast day of their patron saint, Saint Joseph. ​

Over the centuries, this modest practice evolved into a grand celebration. The festival officially begins with La Cridà (“The Call”), where the Fallera Mayor, the festival’s queen, invites everyone to partake in the festivities. From March 1st onwards, daily Mascletàs intense pyrotechnic displays characterized by rhythmic explosions take place in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, captivating both locals and visitors. ​

Central to Las Fallas are the Fallas monuments: towering sculptures crafted from materials like wood and papier-mâché. These artistic creations, often satirical in nature, can reach heights of up to 30 meters. They are displayed throughout the city, and on March 19th, during La Cremà (“The Burning”), these monuments are set ablaze, symbolizing renewal and the ushering in of spring. ​

While Las Fallas is a cherished tradition, it presents environmental challenges, including elevated noise levels and air quality concerns due to the extensive use of fireworks and the burning of the monuments. Recognizing the need to monitor and address these impacts, Cloud Studio, in collaboration with LORIOT and Dragino, initiated IoT optimization for Las Fallas.

Cloud Studio in Action: The IoT Platform Behind Las Fallas

To effectively understand and capture the environmental heartbeat of Las Fallas, at Cloud Studio we focused on delivering intuitive, precise, and real-time monitoring solutions powered by advanced IoT technology. Our IoT software served as the critical layer that transformed data into actionable insights, highlighting our commitment to smarter, sustainable urban experiences. 

Collaborating closely with our technology partners, we integrated a powerful combination of hardware and connectivity. The Dragino sensors acted as our environmental scouts, capturing dynamic changes in the city’s atmosphere and acoustics.Specifically, the Dragino LHT65N-VIB LoRaWAN sensors, originally engineered for industrial vibration monitoring, provided us with the capability to detect even the most subtle yet impactful vibrations generated by each explosive Mascletà.

Dragino LHT65N-VIB LoRaWAN sensor monitoring vibrations 

These advanced sensors precisely captured both vibration and sound levels, enabling a comprehensive analysis of the acoustic and atmospheric effects of Las Fallas. The gathered data was then transformed into interactive, real-time dashboards, allowing us to present insights in a clear and visually engaging manner.

Milesight WS302 LoRaWAN for monitoring noise levels

All sensor data was seamlessly transmitted via the reliable LoRaWAN connectivity, strongly supported by our partner LORIOT, ensuring secure and efficient data transfer from hardware to the cloud. Thanks to the gathered information and the support of our partners, we created dashboards that visualize environmental data in clear and intuitive formats. Using this platform, we are able to track noise levels during key festival events and monitor vibration patterns from various activities without disrupting the essence of the tradition of Las Fallas.

Dragino AQS01-L LoRaWAN CO2 sensor monitoring the air quality and CO2 levels

The design of the platform was particularly interesting as Joaquin Cervera, CEO of Cloud Studio says “Designing this system for Las Fallas was particularly interesting because we’re monitoring a cultural celebration rather than industrial processes. The platform’s flexibility allowed us to rapidly customize visualizations that highlight environmental patterns during this unique event while raising awareness about noise levels without diminishing the festival experience.”

 By addopting this software for Las Fallas we showed that “IoT isn’t solely for industrial use cases; it can also add value to socio-cultural events like Las Fallas. The Internet of Things has the potential to enhance everything it touches, provided it focuses on delivering useful and transparent insights through clear and accessible information!” as our CEO rightly mentioned.

Cloud Studio’s team dedicated to the Falla’s project

Celebrating Smarter: IoT and the Future of Las Fallas

This project shows us how modern technology, like IoT sensors and platforms, can help keep important traditions alive while taking care of the environment. By using smart tools to monitor vibrations, noise, and air quality during Valencia’s famous Las Fallas festival, we at Cloud Studio learned how to make celebrations safer and more sustainable. Thanks to teamwork with our partners, LORIOT and Dragino, we now understand better how tradition and innovation can come together. In the future, these smart technologies could be key to enjoying cultural events without harming our planet.