Six months ahead of the European Athletics Indoor Championships, Valencia 2027 unveils the message that will represent and accompany all the championship’s activities: “Ignite the Track”, inspired by Las Fallas, the city’s most iconic celebration, and by the strength with which Valencia lives its identity, culture and traditions.
Exactly six months (from 4 September) remain until the start of the Valencia 2027 European Athletics Indoor Championships, which will take place from March 4 to 7, 2027, at the Velòdrom Lluís Puig.
The Organising Committee presents the championship’s official slogan: “Ignite the Track”, a message that from today will accompany all of Valencia 2027’s communications ahead of the European event, with half a year to go until the big sporting occasion.
The announcement is accompanied by a short video, created using artificial intelligence, published on the championship’s official social media channels, marking the start of the public countdown to March 2027.
What does Ignite the Track mean?
To choose the championship’s slogan, the Organising Committee drew on one of Valencia’s most recognisable identity markers: Las Fallas and the symbolism of fire.
Las Fallas is the city’s most internationally renowned festival and one of Spain’s best-known celebrations, declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2016.
Every March, Valencia fills its streets and squares with large sculptural monuments made of wood and cardboard, known as ninots, which are burned on the night of March 19 in the traditional cremà.
One of its most distinctive moments is the mascletà, a pyrotechnic display of progressive intensity set off every day at 2:00pm in Plaza del Ayuntamiento between March 1 and 19.
The festival is experienced through gunpowder, fire and the mascletà, symbols of a very specific kind of energy: the passion, strength and explosion of joy with which Valencia celebrates what matters to it. “Ignite the Track” carries that same spirit onto the athletics track.
A flame that ignites and bursts, just like in a mascletà, to represent the energy and passion with which the city takes on the championship. In that sense, igniting the track is Valencia 2027’s way of saying that athletics is already part of its festival.
What’s more, the competition days, from March 4 to 7, 2027, will coincide with the daily mascletà in the heart of the city, so anyone visiting Valencia during the championship will be able to experience that same atmosphere firsthand.
A video that travels across Valencia to ignite the track
The video recreates an aerial journey over some of Valencia’s most iconic sights (including the City of Arts and Sciences and the area around Plaza del Ayuntamiento), flown over by a trail of fire that races through the city at full speed, carrying the same spirit that fills its streets during Las Fallas.
That flame reaches the Velòdrom Lluís Puig, the championship’s venue, where it strikes the athletics track: it doesn’t burn it, it ignites it, bursting into an explosion of energy in a direct nod to the mascletà. The piece closes with the appearance of the slogan “Ignite the Track” on the track.
With this image, Valencia 2027 conveys that this Championship does not begin on opening day, but is already underway: the entire city becomes the starting point of a flame, carrying Valencia’s festive DNA, that ultimately ignites the stage of the competition.
The countdown begins alongside the Ignite the Track School Challenge
With the launch of “Ignite the Track”, a key month begins for Valencia 2027, one in which several strands of the championship’s legacy programme get underway.
This September also marks the start of the Ignite the Track School Challenge, an educational challenge aimed at primary schools in Valencia, Castellón and Alicante that combines athletics, teamwork and the use of English, while the volunteer programme, which opened its call some months ago, continues.
These initiatives will be joined by others already confirmed for the coming weeks, such as a technical-sports training day at the end of October, the “Road to 2027” Schools Trophy at the end of January, and the development of Green Track Valencia 2027, the championship’s sustainability programme.
In the coming months, the Organising Committee will also be revealing other elements of Valencia 2027’s identity, such as the official mascot, among others.
The Organising Committee invites everyone to follow Valencia 2027’s official channels to keep up with every update in the countdown to the European Athletics Indoor Championships, which will bring together the continent’s best athletes at the Velòdrom Lluís Puig from March 4 to 7, 2027.