Carnaval 2017

[Janet]

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The Santa Cruz Carnaval 2017 will take place between 22 February and 5 March. The final full programme is still being fleshed out, but the carnival queen will be elected on 22 February, then the carnival moves onto the streets with the opening parade on the 24th. The Carnaval de Día will be on Sunday 26th, and the main Coso parade on the 28th. The burial of the sardine will follow on 1 March, with another Carnaval de Día on Saturday 4th. The Fin de Fiesta party with fireworks will bring the carnival to an end on Sunday 5th. The official website for Carnaval 2017 is HERE, and there's a Facebook page HERE. After last year's theme of The 1980s, 2017's will be The Caribbean.

The Tenerife capital's carnival isn't just the largest in Tenerife, it is now an official Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional, the second largest in the world, with only the world-famous Rio de Janeiro Carnaval bigger. Including initial competitions, events take place over a month, with almost everything pretty much coming to a standstill in Tenerife! In the main carnival week, indeed, shops and banks have restricted hours, and many businesses close altogether on carnival Tuesday, which is a public holiday in many municipalities in Tenerife.

One of the most keenly anticipated events, or series of events, is the murga competitions – a sort of combination of farce, satire and music (involving a type of kazoo) with outlandish costume and group singing. They are phenomenally popular and there is saturation television coverage of all the stages and groups taking part. I've posted videos of them in previous years, e.g. HERE.

Perhaps most famous to outsiders, however, are the main parades, the choice of carnival queen, and the bizarre ceremony of the burial of the sardine on the eve of Lent. Men dressed as wailing widows, a gigantic fish in full make-up paraded through the town and then burnt – no-one seems to know what roots the tradition has, but it's always one of the most popular parts of any carnival. In Santa Cruz' 2017 carnival, the main parade will be on Tuesday, 28 February, and the burial of the sardine on Wednesday 1 March.

Two other Carnavals of great local interest are in Los Cristianos and Puerto de la Cruz. The first will be between 17 and 27 March, with Puerto de la Cruz between 19 February and 5 March, with the main parade on Saturday 4 March. It's not even Christmas, and we're already on Carnaval countdown!

[Nova]

Have they announced the theme yet, @Janet?

[Janet]

um ...

The Santa Cruz Carnaval 2017 ...  After last year's theme of The 1980s, 2017's will be The Caribbean.
 

[Nova]

Bloody hell, I've read it at least three fucking times 

[Janet]

[Janet]

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Judith López representing Fuente Alta was chosen as Reina del Carnaval at the main gala in Santa Cruz' Recinto Ferial last night. She was wearing a fantasia called Madame Soleil designed by Jorge Gonzalez. Judith is now the carnival queen, and with her selection, the full party moves onto the streets for Semana Grande – the "big week" of the Santa Cruz Carnaval.

During next week, many businesses throughout Tenerife will be operating partial hours, and banks may be closing earlier than usual. Quite a few municipalities have 28 February, the Tuesday of Semana Grande – Martes de Carnaval – as one of their two public fiesta days: among others, Arona, San Miguel, Granadilla, and Icod do, for example, though Adeje, Guía de Isora and Puerto de la Cruz do not – the full list of municipal, and regional public holidays is HERE.

And for those who would like a taste of the carnival without actually being there, Canary Live 24 often has a series of webcams for a live stream, just click HERE, and HERE is the official website which should carry information about its own streamed webcams.

Please see the original post on my website HERE for all live links.

[Janet]

Today and tomorrow are arguably by far the most popular days of the Santa Cruz carnival. The main parade – the Coso – will take place today at 4pm, and the Cabildo and Titsa have laid on extra buses, with several thousand seats arranged in stands along the route where the queens and the comparsas (dancing groups), and many others, will parade. Even so there will be many more there than can comfortably be seated. Many travel companies and hotels have also laid on buses to take tourists up to see the show and get the full carnival experience.

Because the carnival is associated with Lent and Easter, the Coso takes place on Shrove Tuesday, the Martes de Carnaval which we know better as Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent proper, and so the sardine is buried in a tradition involving men dressed as wailing widows, a gigantic fish in full make-up paraded through the town and then burnt – no-one seems to know what roots the tradition has, but it's always one of the most popular parts of the carnival.

The Santa Cruz Carnival comes to a close this weekend, with a Day Carnival from 1pm on Saturday and the Grand Finale on Sunday.

[Janet]

 Now that the sardine is buried in Santa Cruz, all attention shifts south to Los Cristianos, where the council has now unveiled the Southern Carnival. This year's theme is Las Vegas, and the playing card design of the poster (left) references the gambling centre of the world as well as the tension between good and evil, the element of "transgression" before penance appropriate to the carnival period and its relationship with Lent.

The full programme for the Los Cristianos carnival is HERE, but the main events will be the selection of the carnival queen on Thursday, 23 March, the Carnaval del Día on Saturday 25th, the Gran Coso (main parade) on Sunday 26th, and the burial of the sardine on Monday 27th.

The council says that there will be an official carnival song - Póker de Carnaval - by Tenerife singer Míriam Reyes with an accompanying video to be released online at 5pm next Wednesday. The open air carnival precinct will have free stepped seating for the first time for audiences to see the gala performances, which will involve some 6,000 participants and three full stages. There will also be a mobile app for the whole fiesta which will transform the town between 17 and 27 March, not least with pretty widespread disruption with extra security and significant traffic diversions.

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[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Not all attention!  Mine is turning north, to Los Gigantes, where Carnaval will be the weekends of 10 and 17 March.  Naturally, however, I cannot find any information online about it other than generalities.   

Why the hell can't they put this stuff online?  It is not as if we are lacking in ayuntamiento websites, Facebook, Trip Advisor, Twitter and the like. 

Grrr.

[Janet]

ah that's "south" 

From my website, all the info I have:

A popular carnival in south Tenerife is that of Los Gigantes, and the dates for that are now confirmed as 10,11,12,17 & 18 March. The theme is "the farm", and the main events will be the selection of the carnival queen on Friday, 10 March, the Gran Coso on the 12th, the burial of the sardine on Friday 17th, and the carnaval del día on the 18th.