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Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Friday 6 March 2026. The Carnival has bid farewell to its 50th anniversary edition by officially announcing the theme for the 2027 Carnival: Music.
The announcement came on the first day of March, after a five-week programme and the burning of the sardine at Las Canteras, the final event of this year’s Carnival and the symbolic send-off to the city’s most important festival.

This leave-taking was followed closely by Carnival devotees. The fish, a beautiful five-metre-long sardine in the character of Elvis, covered the distance from the Metropole to the beach. There, along the avenue and on the seashore, thousands of people were waiting, dressed as widows and mourners, wailing and laughing as they began the countdown to the next edition, to be held in January 2027.

In the light of what has been revealed, it will be a year eagerly awaited by the carnival-goers, who were responsible for the vote that decided on the forthcoming theme. Because music is part of the very essence of the festivity. The pulse of Carnival will therefore be felt in a celebration with no geographical, temporal or gender boundaries. The festival cannot be understood without the rhythm of the groups, vibrant stages and the intergenerational unity that music arouses. It will also be a tribute to this universal language that connects cultures and turns the events into a collective experience.

Monday 23 February 2026. The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival bids farewell to its 50th edition with a spectacular finale. The sixth and final week of the carnival calendar has been reserved for Marc Anthony’s concert in the Santa Catalina arena, all-night sessions on the 27th and 28th, the Grand Parade with its 117 floats and mobile party trucks on Saturday afternoon and evening, a Sunday morning with a widows’ marathon and live music, and the burial and burning of the sardine, bringing hundreds of thousands of carnival-goers out onto the streets from Friday 27 February to Sunday 1 March.

The Social Integration Gala

Before that, Santa Catalina Park will have held a heartwarming event: the Integration Gala. Its participants — people with disabilities, ardent, devoted and passionate carnival-goers — demonstrate that enthusiasm knows no barriers and that the Carnival and its stage are for all. On Wednesday 25 February, anyone who wants to enjoy the most endearing event on the programme will find the gates of the enclosure open to their participation.

Divas for the Crown Contest

The next day, on Thursday 26 February, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria will inaugurate Divas for the Crown, a new contest that brings eight participants up on stage to compete with each other in lip-sync battles for the title of best female impersonator in “Las Vegas”.

Daytime Carnival and Carnival Nights

On the final Friday, 27 February, from 3 pm to 10 pm, the main Carnival stage will welcome various artists and DJs in a succession of concerts culminating with Marc Anthony, from 8 pm, following Luck Ra, at 4 pm, and Emily Stefan, at 6 pm.

That same day, and also on Saturday, the nighttime stages in Manuel Becerra, Plaza de La Luz and Calle Poeta Agustín Millares Sall will be active, with bands, orchestras and DJs from 11 pm to 4 am on Friday and from 10 pm to 5 am on Saturday, the day of the parade, including Ozuna’s concert at midnight in Manuel Becerra.

Grand Parade and Burial of the Sardine

Before the grand finale on Sunday 1 March, with the procession that carries the sardine from the Metropole to Las Canteras for its symbolic burning, the city will have held its largest mass event: the Grand Parade, a procession which, following behind the Carnival court, brings together more than 100,000 people along the route among the 117 floats that become mobile discos all over the city.

On Sunday morning, there’s still time for those who don’t stay up all night. The heart of the festivities hosts another morning of concerts and a widows’ marathon.

The organisers remind you that you can find details of the concerts and the programme in the calendar on the home page at lpacarnaval.com, in both the English and Spanish versions.

Wednesday 18 February 2026. The latest figure to occupy the Carnival throne is eagerly awaited: on the night of Friday 20 February, at 9 pm in Santa Catalina Park, a gala that has been touring the world for decades will take place: the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Drag Queen Gala.

Drag, with the authority vested in it by carnival-goers, has confirmed its position as the authentic figurehead of what is now a Festival of International Tourist Interest. It is the element that since 1998 has endowed carnival time in the capital of Gran Canaria with a personality of its own. And this is not the kind of drag that hit the screens after the success of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994).

Canarian drag queens do not wear high heels; they get up on towering platform boots to perform impossible choreography, captivating the audience with humour, executing pirouettes or challenging the established system, always with wit and ingenuity. Their costume changes are veritable transformations and stories. The choice and arrangement of musical numbers connects them directly with their essence and their followers. It is impossible not to be bowled over by the splendour of Canarian drag.

RuPaul himself was a guest artist in a gala that made a great impression on him, a curious visit that brought him up on stage in 2008. A year later, RuPaul Drag’s Race was born. Coincidence?

The night of the platform boots is now 28 years old, and today, as ever, the tickets are still snapped up within minutes of going on sale. The online box office was sold out in four minutes. The physical one lasted a little longer; every year, there are photos of queues of fans sleeping at the entrance waiting for it to open. They will witness the healthy competition between the twelve drag queens who secured a place in the final. Twelves stars, icons, almost mass idols.

The event is followed on television all over the world. This year, once again, the public channels RTVE and RTVC will be broadcasting it to a number of countries via their digital platforms. From 9:00 p.m. (GMT+0) you can watch the gala live, or you can also catch up on it at another time thanks to applications like RTVE Play or Canarias Play.

The festivities for the drag contest do not end there; throughout the weekend, the city will be celebrating in the street with concerts in Manuel Becerra, Plaza de La Luz and Calle Poeta Agustín Millares Sall, until 5:00 am. In addition, the Santa Catalina enclosure will host a morning session full of musical performances on Saturday 21 February, in a friendly, family atmosphere.

The organisers remind you that you can keep up to date with the agenda on both the Spanish and English versions of lpacarnaval.com, where details of each event are provided on the home page of each version.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tuesday 3 February, 2026. The week has come when they choose the Queen and the group of Ladies in Waiting who will accompany the monarch in her parades and acts. This will be on Friday, 13 February, at the end of a gala which will see 13 contenders parading on the catwalk in their spectacular costumes. The designs worn by the Queens in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are not just costumes or outfits inspired by a theme, they are huge structures that reproduce dream worlds and eclipse the audience with their brilliance, feathers, beading, colour, elegance and the savoir faire of those who bear them, the candidates.

A huge week for Carnival

Without a doubt, this is a huge week for Carnival; it’s over half way through, it coincides with Carnival Tuesday (a local holiday), and the street parties begin: the parades which bring together groups and fans, the Queens Elect of the Children’s, Adult’s and Veteran’s categories and their Courts, in this case. There will also be the 12 Drag Queens who have made it to the final, and who will be judged in the Drag Queen Gala on 20 February, as well as the Children’s Parade which is scheduled for the morning of Tuesday 17 February.

Carnival Nights, Children’s Carnival and Senior Carnival

Other types of encounters will take over the spaces allocated to this great event: the stage at Santa Catalina Square, the stage in the area behind, the recently designated stage in Manuel Becerra Square and the one on Poeta Agustín Millares Sall Street; these last two are zones which will be particularly vibrant in the night-time revelries on 13 and 14 February; but there are also new locations which will join in on the fun on Sunday 15 to celebrate a Children’s Carnival with all the family in the Plaza de la Feria Square, and a Senior Carnival, that same day, but in Plaza del Pilar Square, in the popular Guanarteme neighbourhood.

Body Painting Contest

Late on Sunday 15, the Carnival enclosure will throb with the excitement of the Body Painting Contest, human canvases clothed in talent, hours of work and creativity. Amazing too is the patience of the models who will then show off the artistic talents of the make-up artists through movement, dance and choreographies which they will perform with little dancing troupes.

Carnival Tuesday

Bearing in mind that the city comes to a halt on 17 February with Carnival Tuesday, activity related to the festivities will be at boiling point everywhere and will once more invite everyone to nights of rhythm: on the night of February 16, the eve of Carnival Tuesday, at the designated spaces, and on the great Tuesday which brings little boys and girls out onto the streets in the company of their families for the Children’s Parade, and for a day of music in their Daytime Carnival in Santa Catalina.

The organisers remind you to keep an eye on the lpacarnaval.com schedule, both in its Spanish version and the English one, where information will be posted about the details of every event on each version’s home page.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday 26 January, 2026. The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival is with us until 1 March, setting the pace in Santa Catalina Park, the epicentre of the galas and competitions. The lively inauguration of the programme last week with the opening proclamation, the presentation of contenders and the draw for order of participation, the Children’s Choreographic Festival, the Children’s Murgas Competition, and the first grand gala, for the Children’s Throne, confirmed the start of Carnival celebrations where the keynote has been images of capacity crowds and a stunning following from the general public.

Drag Queen Preselection and the Adult Fancy Dress Competition

A trend which can only go from strength to strength, if we bear in mind that the second week of the festive calendar will see such significant acts going up onto the stage as the Drag Queen Preselection or the Adult Fancy Dress Competition – glorious fun and abandon. Acts which connect directly with the audience, with values which are the Carnival’s very own: respect, tolerance and transgression. Both of these competitions show a picture of sell-out and capacity crowds: the Preselection sold out online within 10 minutes and in the ticket office, the last ticket sold two hours and ten minutes after it opened.

Cross-Dresser Gala

The same as for the Cross-Dresser Gala, an event which delights audiences with its sass and reminds us of the origins of these celebrations, when 50 years ago these were the people who had to dodge repression, reclaiming the liberty denied them beyond the imposition of the Carnival mask.

Children’s Party

There is still room in the diary for a Children’s Party, for the little comparsas that will show such ingenious choreographies, a display of imagination in costumes and the enthusiasm that these girls and boys work with. There are five groups, namely Brisa de Volcán, Rayo de Luna Junior, Yurimagua Junior, Tropicana Infantil and Lianceiros Junior, who work year-round with their hopes set on the Santa Catalina stage.

Murgas Competition and Comparsas

All of these as the prelude to a third week which lends the spotlight to the Murgas, 19 groups which draw from satire, irony, witty words and tone to offer social criticism or criticism of the status quo. They will take over the Carnival venue from Monday 2 to Saturday 7, with a day allotted for the dances of the Adult Comparsas, 7 groupings who will put themselves in the hands of the audience on February 6.

Dog Carnival

On Sunday 8, Carnival ratifies a lovable contest, the Dog Carnival, a diary date where the prize is what matters least: what is important is to see the pets having fun with their owners in a morning event where dogs are welcomed onto this special stage. And that day ends with such a delightful evening, with the 11 older ladies contending to show off the Grand Dame’s crown, the unquestionable proof that Carnival doesn’t care about age.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Thursday 22 January, 2026. The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival will offer tickets to the general public for the Drag Queen Preselection event, the Carnival Queen Gala and the Drag Queen Gala in the next few days. Ticket sales will be via the entradascanarias.com ticket platform, with links on lpacarnaval.com. Likewise, tickets can be bought at the ticket office provided by the organisers at the rear of the Miller building (plaza de Canarias, Canarias Square).

In order to make the purchase process simpler, ticket sales will be staggered. The first tickets to be made available will be for the Drag Queen Preselection event, and they can be purchased for 10 euros from Monday, January 26. Just a day later, on Tuesday 27, tickets will be available for the Carnival Queen Gala, at a price of 10 euros; while on Thursday 29, tickets can be bought for the Drag Queen Gala for 15 euros.

On the days specified, sales will be activated from 9.00 (GMT +0), both online and at the ticket office. However, the ticket office will have fixed opening hours over the remaining days when it will be open from Monday to Friday from 10.00 to 13.00h and from 16.00 to 20.00h. At weekends, opening hours will be from 10.00 to 13.00h.

For the rest of the events on the programme, access will be free until capacity is reached.

Order of ticket sales:

Drag Queen Preselection

From Monday 26 January at 9.00h. Flat rate ticket price: 10 euros. Ticket sales on entradascanarias.com with links on lpacarnaval.com and at the ticket office at the rear of the Miller building. From January 28, the ticket office will change its opening hours which will then be: from Monday to Friday from 10.00 to 13.00h and from 13.00 to 20.00h; at weekends from 10.00 to 13.00h.

Carnival Queen Gala

From Tuesday 27 January at 9.00h. Flat rate ticket price: 10 euros. Ticket sales on entradascanarias.com with links on lpacarnaval.com and at the ticket office at the rear of the Miller office. From January 28, the ticket office will change its opening hours, which will then be from Monday to Friday from 10.00 to 13.00h and from 16.00 to 20.00h; and at weekends from 10.00 to 13.00h.

Drag Queen Gala

From Thursday 29 January at 9.00h. Flat rate ticket price: 15 euros. Ticket sales on entradascanarias.com with links on lpacarnaval.com and at the ticket office behind the Miller building. From January 30, the ticket office will change its opening hours, which will then be from Monday to Friday from 10.00 to 13.00h and from 16.00 to 20.00h; and at weekends from 10.00 to 13.00h.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday 19 January, 2026. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival celebrates the 50 years it has been in existence after its revival following the ending of the Spanish dictatorship. And the fact is that this fancy dress party par excellence, despite being kept alive clandestinely, returned to the streets on the death of the dictator, even before the configuration of a new democracy, a new political model for coexistence and the passing of the 1978 Constitution.

The holding of the event highlights the particular character of the celebrations which, since 2023, have been recognised as a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest and, officially, one of the major attractions of Brand Spain overseas.

From 23 January to 1 March, therefore, the Gran Canaria capital will be the setting for a large number of galas, competitions and street celebrations where freedom, irreverence, respect and good humour make up a fundamental part of the Carnival’s identity.

The theme for this occasion will see the Carnival’s enclosure and its competitions turned into grand spectacles equalling the level of the city in Nevada, since “Las Vegas” will be the theme running through each one of our events. So, there will be glamour, luxury and musicals; figures such as Elvis, Sinatra, Mariah Carey and Céline Dion; neon lights and majestic hotel fronts will feature alongside each other in the festival of the flesh.

Visitors to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria will be sucked into a world of fantasy and will enjoy a wide programme, which includes the famous galas. Details of the programme are to be found at this URL. Access to events in the majority of cases is free until capacity it reached, with the exception of the Drag Queen Preselection event, The Carnival Queen Gala and the Drag Queen Gala: tickets for these events will be put on sale via ticket platforms a few days prior to the holding of each event. Events can also be followed on screen, with the public channels RTVC and RTVE, depending on the event, broadcasting content on their digital platforms.

The organisers recommend you keep a close eye on your Social Media. There will be information in English on FB, at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival; and on X, @lpacarnival.