El Palau de la Música celebrates the 14th Jazz Festival between 8th and 17th July. This year’s line-up is characterised by a variety of styles and a very high level of artistic quality. Special mention must be made of the female singers who are to perform, such as the daughter of the great Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, who’s show on 14th July will include a duet featuring a projection of her father and songs from her record “Still unforgettable”, Melody Gardot and the young Canadian Nikki Yanosky, who at the tender age of 16 will make her world debut on 15th.

Naturally, the festival includes giants from the jazz world, such as Joshua Redman and Dr. John. Africa Jazz Big Band, Billy Stewart, Avishai Cohen and Valencian Ximo Tebar, among others. Further information: www.palaudevalencia.com

Delta Air Lines is connecting New York-JFK with one of the top booming tourist destinations in Europe, Valencia, with 8-hour direct flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Valencia is Spain’s third city and the third European destination in terms of growth in bed-nights during recent years, according to European Cities Marketing.

Inaugural flight ’09

This has not happened by chance, as the city has become a very attractive destination by virtue of its unique combination of architectural styles spanning from the past to the present. Examples include Roman, Arabic and Visigoth ruins from the 2nd Century and the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences, designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava, who was also responsible for the Ground Zero station in New York.

The city enjoys a Mediterranean climate that enables visitors to enjoy the numerous street terraces and practice open-air activities. Additional features include the celebration of such international events as the forthcoming European Formula One Grand Prix, which is to be held on 27th June, and the Open 500 tennis tournament to be held in November. July also sees the celebration of the 3rd edition of the Valencia Cuina Oberta – Restaurant Week culinary event and the July Fair, which offers open-air concerts and a spectacular “battle of flowers”. Further information on the flight: www.delta.com

The Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit will play host to one of the 2010 German Touring Car Championship’s ten races on 21, 22 and 23 May. David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher are among the 18 drivers who will take part in this spectacular race, putting the fastest 400 hp touring cars from Audi and Mercedes to the test at speeds of over 300 km/h. Ticket prices vary from €5 to €30. Motor sports fans can also buy a Paddock pass to enjoy a more intense experience.

More information at: http://www.circuitvalencia.com/

All this will be a warm-up for the arrival of Formula 1’s top drivers, who will visit the city on the 25, 26 and 27 June for the Formula 1 Telefónica Grand Prix of Europe. Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello will be present, as well as another of the Schumacher brothers, Michael, who has returned to the cockpit this year. More information at: www.valenciastreetcircuit.com/

Is Las Fallas the world’s loudest, most apocalyptic festival? Telegraph Travel goes to Valencia in Spain to find out.

A pall of gunpowder smoke envelops Valencia town hall square and I am not sure if my eardrums will make it. Somehow the volume moves up a notch, from epic to cataclysmic, as a new wave of explosions rips low across the plaza. I consider fleeing indoors then opt for a more valiant approach, sidling behind a turret in a futile bid for protection from the wall of decibels crashing around me.

The smoke thickens around the centrepiece of the square, a giant, rainbow-coloured effigy destined for a fiery demise at the culmination of this Las Fallas festival. Another choreographed blast is triggered. A grey fug now cloaks everything before me apart from the bat-shaped gargoyle etched into my temporary shield, the sandstone turret, before, finally, the explosions reach a crescendo.

As smoke drifts away the crowd surges forward, clamouring their approval for the orchestrators of this extraordinary symphony of noise. The pyro-technicians respond by jogging a lap of honour amid the strewn debris of exploded fireworks.

This is how it is every day at 2pm for the mascletà fireworks during this festival in the port city of Valencia. And this display of pyrotechnical might is merely the professional tip of a universal pastime. Mothers delve into handbags and hand out bangers to children like they are boiled sweets; well-dressed families go for a leisurely afternoon detonating extremely loud firecrackers; I even see a dog-owning couple let off a series of deafening blasts, their pet not even deigning to lift its nose.

Visitors also become inured to the relentless noise, explosions punctuating conversations like pauses for breath. The fireworks, however, never quite lose their power to shock, as I discover on a cycle tour along the city’s Turia Gardens. Sleep deprived after the night’s festivities, we pedal gently along the old riverbed – until an enormous blast reverberates underneath a bridge, jolting us from our reverie.

There seems only one thing to do. A quick stop at a kiosk and I am armed with bombas de humo (smoke bombs), camelia flowers and volcanoes. That evening, we ignite a camelia flower in a city street, retreating as a fizz of green sparks whirls into life. Then we are shown the Valencian way, as the camelia flower is booted at us by a group of young women. We string together about four passes in an impromptu game of fireworks football before the sparks fizzle out.

Later that night, the festival reaches its apocalyptic climax. The fallas effigies, made by neighbourhood groups known as casales falleros, are set ablaze. Thought to be from a tradition started by 18th-century carpenters, who burned work stands when brighter spring days meant they were no longer needed to carry oil lamps, the bonfires rage on a grander scale each year. A year’s work goes into making the effigies, as the falleros try to outdo each other. Specialised artists design and mould the figures in polyurethane, which often bear a striking resemblance to 3D Pixar characters. The larger ones – in the Special Category – can be more than three storeys high, and, controversially in Spain’s straitened economic climes, cost hundreds of thousands of euros to make (this year’s most expensive cost €600,000).

The Valencian council contributes a quarter of this, a generosity which artists reward, naturally, by lampooning local government personalities mercilessly. Figures within these monuments, known as ninots, often have a ribald, satirical edge – Nicolas Sarkozy climbing on top of the Eiffel Tower to kiss his wife, for example. Valencia’s mayor is another popular target. Laugh at your own risk, however. Nobody escapes – pop stars and tennis players are sent up, journalists are mocked, and tourists are gently teased in garish 20m-tall creations.

Then, in this night of towering challenges for the local fire service, all this creativity and invention is razed to the ground, bilging black fumes into the sky. Only the most popular of the small ninots is spared, saved for posterity in the city’s Fallas Museum.

The last to burn is the monumental public-funded centrepiece in the town hall square, a menagerie of caricatures depicting all the people of the festival, from artists to firemen and drunks. Crowds throng to witness this finale. A vendor looks stony faced but resigned as half a dozen trespassers enjoy the views from the roof of her snack stall; a senora shrieks with glee as she watches a young man hoist his girlfriend up by her belt-straps to join him in the crux of a tree.

The crowd whistles, impatient for the valedictory flourish of fireworks and flames. Then, as the effigy crumples in the blaze, the softer, sombre sound of a traditional Valencian refrain drifts across the square.

One giant figure still stands the next morning, a floral statue of the city’s patron Virgen de los Desamparodos (Lady of the Forsaken), stuffed with cream and ruby carnations left earlier in the week by a procession of falleros in ornate traditional dress. I wander away from sightseers admiring the floral bouquets, and find myself unexpectedly alone in a backstreet. Silence remains as elusive as ever, however, as the throb of an industrial street cleaner echoes down the alley and the cathedral bells chime noon in Valencia old town.

• The Fallas Festival runs from March 15 to 19 each year. More information on the festival and the city of Valencia can be found at www.turisvalencia.es.

The Swiss from the Alinghi team and the North Americans from the BMW Oracle team will battle each other in a duel aboard their magnificent 275 metre catamarans with their masts of over 30 metres in height and the latest technology. Lovers of sailing will be able to enjoy the vibrant competition from the port dock; the entrance and exit of the catamarans, as well as the best sporting and leisure atmosphere. The return of the America’s Cup represents another triumph for the city in its quest to hold sporting events such as the Global Champions Tour, the Open 500, Formula 1 or the MotoGP which this year will also take place in the Spanish capital of the Mediterranean.    

Takashi Murakami, with his blend of his ancestral Japan with Western Pop symbols, exhibits in Valencia until 29 December.

For the first time in Valencia, Takashi Murakami, the most provocative and internationally recognised Japanese artist, exhibits his most colouristic and ironic work at the CAM Culture Room, La Llotgeta. The work titled Superflat. New Pop Culture can be seen until the 29 December. The exhibition consists of 21 lithographs and a series of small sculptures which make reference to manga imagery. The artist, known as the “Japanese Andy Warhol”, has a style that is characterised by the pictorial space in his works, which is literally flat, because it can be read in the same way from different points of view.

For more information: http://obrasocial.cam.es.

Mark Walsh, Reed Exhibition’s Group Exhibition Director said, “Attendance at IGTM is more important than it has ever been; offering the international golf tourism industry the ideal forum to get together to do business and discuss ways to overcome the current economic challenges.

“The Valencia region has been selected as the Host Destination for IGTM 2010 as it provides all the necessary requirements to attract the most comprehensive international attendance as well as stage a successful business exhibition. The Valencia Region offers an excellent infrastructure, state of the art exhibition centre, easy accessibility as well as of course a great golf product to present and I am confident IGTM 2010 will take the event to the next successful level.”

Valencia was chosen due to its convenient location and top golfing pedigree. The region offers an impressive amount of top golf courses stretching from Castellon in the North of the region of Valencia to Alicante in the south which includes the popular golf courses of Torrevieje.

IGTM 2010 will take place from 15-18 November. For further information on the event go to www.igtm.co.uk

The thinker, a naked man 1.84 metres tall, sitting on a rock and curling his toes, is the French artist Auguste Rodin’s iconic work and will greet pedestrians as they enter the Town Hall Square. Exhibited alongside him are six other sculptures, The Burghers of Calais, which form part of the monument commemorating the heroism of the citizens of Calais during the attack on the city by the English in 1347.

Once again Valencia exhibits art on its streets and all passers-by can enjoy the works of the most important French sculptor of the XIX century, thus fulfilling one of the artist’s desires, who conceived for his sculptures to be displayed in the open air. Exhibition ends December the 13th.

The trivago Reputation Ranking is an analysis of the European hotel industry and its touristic popularity. It is based on 2.7 million hotel reviews for 13,000 hotels in 50 European cities.

More information: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4044240.search?query=online+reputation+trivago

Source: www.hospitalitynet.org / www.trivago.es

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