The Night of San Juan in Valencia

If you're here for the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit. Make sure you get down to the beach on Saturday night. It is Noche de San Juan - you could be fooled into thinking that the entire population of Valencia is on the beach burning their old furniture. This is the shortest night of the year and to celebrate, a huge beach party takes place, the bonfires are used to cook food, a lot of drink is consumed, adn then, at midnight everyone runs to the sea to jump nine waves (for Luck! What else?) and then they run back to their fires where the proceed to jump them and throw bits of paper into the flames. The paper has written on it the things that were bad in the previous 12 months and good wishes for the coming year. It's also a jolly good way of drying off, if you're careful!
The party and the fires fizzle out in the early hours, and by morning, you wouldn't know there had been a party, so well have the beaches been cleaned.
San Juan takes place on beaches all over the Mediterranean.