In front of the Town Hall, two large puppets were hung on special cranes; their moment came after dark. At 10.30 pm, a local street theatre company Carros de Foc performed on the square. This group, which has already played in the open air in many countries around the world, is known for combining various disciplines such as dance, acrobatics, shadow theatre, choreography with fire, video, music ... and the result is an unforgettable street show of a huge format.
It was really a fantastic experience. One marionette was a narrator, controlled partly by a computer and partly manually by cords from the ground. The second one was a genie, flying over the audience, on which the princess hung and sang.
The story was freely inspired by an Alicante legend about how the city came to its name. Once upon a time, a Caliph lived with his family here. His most beautiful daughter, Cántara, had many admirers, but the most serious were the young men Ali and Almanzor. Because she liked both of them, the Caliph decided to entrust them with difficult tasks, and the first to complete them would take her as a wife.
Almanzor needed to go to India to buy silk, while Ali pledged to build an irrigation canal and bring fresh water to the city. Since he stayed at home, he had enough time to woo her. He sang to her, wrote her letters and recited poems until Cántara fell in love with him.
But when Almanzor returned with a beautiful cloth, the Caliph recognized that he had accomplished the task first. He promised him the princess's hand, unaware that her heart was already taken.
In despair, Ali jumped off the rock, and when a heartbroken Cántara found out, she threw herself off the castle and plummeted to her death. The Caliph got depressed because he lost his beloved daughter, he couldn't sleep, couldn´t eat, and eventually jumped off the castle too...
The inhabitants were so overwhelmed by the events that they decided to change the name of the city to "Alcántara" so that the names of the two in love were forever united; and over time it has evolved into Alicante.