As Promised…

…today I will delight you with some images of last year’s Tenerife Carnival, and a brief introduction about it.

The Tenerife Carnival starts at the end of January and lasts for a month, not on the exact same days every year. This year, from Friday 17th to Monday 20th of February are the dates when (literally) millions of tourists will join us in the city of Santa Cruz, and on a much smaller scale in other cities, to celebrate on the streets during a whole 4 day weekend of pure Bachanalia. Costumes are a must, no matter if big or small, simple or complex, and of course there’s lots of partying, alcohol and general debauchery.

I love it. No, I LOVE IT. I come from a family of seamstresses and January was always a busy month at home – as soon as Christmas was over, costumes were designed and my two grandmothers and my mother would spend weeks sewing costumes for the Gonzalez side of the family, who have the Carnival inserted on their blood. Since this events are mostly for adults, me and my sister would get nice costumes for the school Carnival day, and maybe for our hometown parade, which was way smaller than the ones in Santa Cruz. On the night of Monday, everyone was dressed, make up and wigs were applied, cocktails were combined and off they went to party all night, while my mother and my two grandmothers fell into a exhaustion-induced coma. I never saw them once in costume as I grew up.

As an adult, I find the crowds a bit too much to enjoy, but recently the City Hall has been working on a lot of day events during that week, so we may be joining them this year, if we have the time to create some new costumes. But even if we don’t participate on the big events, the Carnival is simply all around. People in costume are a common sight everywhere as hardly there isn’t one Canarian that is not involved with the Carnival in one way or another. There are the murgas, which are comical groups that create songs to criticize the government and society; the comparsas, amazing dancing groups very much in the style of Brazil’s carnival; and the three acts for choosing the Queens of the Carnival – a child queen, a young woman queen and a senior queen.

Member of a children’s murga.

Comparsa dancers.

Pictures of the amazing costumes of the queens below – yes, each one of those is only one costume, carried by one person! Around 25 of the biggest businesses on the island pay a small fortune to provide for these costumes, and they are usually made by a hoard of crafters that start working as soon as October the previous year.

And then, there’s the Drag Carnival Queen, my all-time favourite event, which (sadly for me) happens on the island of Gran Canaria – but more of that on a future post…

Important Note: these images are not mine – they were found HERE and HERE – they are shown for educational purposes only.