An exceptional Carnival brings thousands of participants out into the street in summer
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday 4 July 2022. The Planet Earth Carnival is the first in the history of the festival to have been held in two stages. The celebrations in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria featured the galas and contests in the winter, when the candidates for Carnival Queen, the Drag Queens and the carnival groups took the stage in Santa Catalina Park for three weeks. It was a period of limited capacity and restrictions imposed because of the health situation. Still pending, however, were the main popular events: the daytime carnival, parades and concerts. Their moment arrived in the first weekend of July.
Thousands of carnival-goers took to the streets to enjoy the gatherings on 1, 2 and 3 July. A Parade of Carnival Prizewinners and Groups, the Great Cavalcade and a range of concerts and daytime carnival events spread around various points in the city brought together the most enthusiastic public for the festivities, at a time when domestic tourism is taking over from foreign visitors in the capital of Gran Canaria.
The event produced exceptional images, as they had never occurred before: thousands of carnival-goers who once again demonstrated their imagination when it came to putting together their costumes, with a great sense of humour and an even greater desire to join in the fun, in the strangest year of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival.
The Carnival, a “Festival of National Tourist Interest”, has shown its ability to remain simmering beneath the surface outside its natural calendar. This is the best possible news for celebrations whose organisation requires work that continues all year round. Indeed, preparations are already underway for the next carnival, in winter 2023, an event that will be dedicated to the theme of discos and rhythms of the seventies, under the title “Studio 54”. Before that, for once, music, carnival and participants have made their presence felt in the city at the height of summer.
The Carnival blossoms in the summer
This is the first time that the Carnival has taken place in the summer. It has never happened before, but the health crisis has made it possible. In the latest Carnival, held this winter, in 2022, the festival’s galas and contests were organised in Santa Catalina Park, with the theme of the “Planet Earth Carnival”. There the Carnival Queen, the Drag Queen, the best murgas and comparsas, the Grande Dame and the Junior Queen were chosen. There were also chirimurgas, events for the youngest participants and even a farewell gala… at which this historic event was already announced.
Parade of Carnival Prizewinners and Groups
So it was that in February, the Summer Carnival was proclaimed. Friday 1 July will be the first summer carnival day in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The Castillo de La Luz (Castle of Light) is an iconic fortress from which the city defended itself from the attacks of privateers (such as Sir Francis Drake), and is also the current headquarters of the Martín Chirino Foundation for Art and Thought (named after the world-famous sculptor born in the city): from there, in the La Isleta district (the cradle of the Carnival), the Parade of Carnival Prizewinners and Groups will set off at 7 pm. It will include the Carnival Queen, Daniela Medina, and the 2022 Carnival Drag Queen, Drag Vulcano. The parade will reach as far as the renovated shopping centre opened in Avenida Mesa y López, not very far from Santa Catalina Park.
And there, the “Planet Earth Carnival”, with a firmly conservationist spirit in its setting, will continue its unique summer session with a musical party at various points of the city: first with DJs, from 9.30 pm, in the Plaza de España, then with the Latin Carnival, in a striking tribute to Celia Cruz and Juan Luis Guerra, from 10 pm on the stage of the Estadio Insular: it should not be forgotten that Las Palmas has a long tradition of affection for salsa and Latin rhythms. And it usually lives up to it.
Grand Cavalcade
On Saturday 2 July the city will once again have its Grand Carnival Cavalcade, which will also start from the Castillo de la Luz, this time at 5 pm. It will be a long and lively festive journey, with the floats taking pride of place, till they reach San Telmo Park. Every year the cavalcade is the most intense event of the Street Carnival. Except that this time it will be enjoyed in the summer.
Four stages
On Sunday 3 July the batucada drummers will be marching along the ramblas of Mesa and López from 12 pm, accompanied by the colourful comparsas, an essential part of the festivities. And from 1 to 8 pm the Daytime Carnival will occupy as many as four stages spread around the Port area of the city: in the Plaza de España, the Park of the former Estadio Insular (closer to Las Alcaravaneras beach), Santa Catalina Park (the main stage and heart of the Carnival) and the Plaza de la Música, by the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, right in the prime surfing area of Las Canteras beach.
Lots of music, in different formats and styles, will provide the soundtrack for this festival, more special that ever in the city: because of the dates and a programme that showcases different locations in the city centre.
Sardine’s Funeral
Finally, the Carnival will say farewell until 2023. This time for real. And it will do so with the traditional Burial of the Sardine, a parade in which widows and mourners will accompany the fish from Santa Catalina Park to Las Canteras, where it will be burnt in the sea, with an invariably eye-catching firework display, on the same beach where the city’s 544th anniversary was celebrated just a few days ago, on St John’s Eve, also with spectacular fireworks. Never before have the two evenings been so close together in the calendar. Never before has the Carnival so powerfully demonstrated its resilience.
The Carnival has a new lease of life in the summer and prepares for next year: in 2023 it will be a great 70s disco
On Friday 1 July, the public will be able to enjoy a big parade with all the prizewinners of the Planet Earth Carnival: the Queen, the Grande Dame, the Drag Queen, the Junior Queen, and the award-winning murgas, comparsas and Carnival characters. To round off the Friday, a night of concerts is being prepared.
A foretaste of the Great Carnival Cavalcade is planned for Saturday 2 July, a day when, after more than two years, we aim to recover the major event of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria street Carnival. This is the great parade of carnival-goers and floats which draws together a large crowd every year in the city’s main arteries.
Finally, on Sunday 3 July the traditional Burial of the Sardine has been scheduled. This is the traditional farewell, a very emotional experience for everyone in the Carnival, accompanying the fish until it is burned on Las Canteras beach. A traditional element of this day is the simulated weeping and wailing of numerous widows who can hardly contain their hysterical grief over the end of the celebrations.
After these historic days, the organizers will get on with carefully preparing next year’s festival. In fact, they have already begun to do so by choosing the theme that will serve as the setting for the 2023 Carnival: “Studio 54”. The representatives of the various sectors involved in the festivities have decided on an allegory that will turn all the events in the coming programme into a great disco from the 1970s.
Ru Paul, the Drag Race and the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Drag Queen Gala
The brainchild has grown and grown, with the extension of the franchise. In 2021, Drag Race España premiered on Atresplayer (with, by the way, a homegrown Drag Queen from the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival: Drag Vulcano). It’s a talent show with no apparent curbs. But, where was it dreamed up? Well, perhaps if we follow the trail of Ru Paul just before 2009, we might find some interesting information.
In 2008, one year before Drag Race’s explosion on the scene, Ru Paul was performing… in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival Drag Queen Gala. Is there a possibility he found inspiration in this contest? Given the combination of the diva’s commercial instinct, the impact on the star of facing Santa Catalina Park, and the emotion that the Gala usually causes in new visitors, it wouldn’t be surprising. So, it’s worth bearing that 2008 show in mind.
For the time being, the connections continue to intertwine: Supremme De Luxe, Drag Race España’s presenter, will also be one of the hosts of the 2022 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival Drag Queen Gala. These are ties which seem to get tighter and tighter over time.
Photos of Ru Paul in the 2022 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Drag Queen Gala.
Today's Carnival: the grand date with the Drag Queens
However, over the years, the festivities have been adapting to the times, incorporating new acts in an ever more comprehensive programme. We would expect nothing less, in a city with the cosmopolitan character of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It is no coincidence that the neighbourhood known as the cradle of modern Carnival should be La Isleta: it has developed alongside the important ports, Puerto de La Luz and Puerto de Las Palmas, an entry gate also for culture and outside influences reaching the city, influences which have shaped an open and broad-minded mentality.
Among those novelties there are contests such as the Body Painting Contest (which has now become an international competition) or the Dogs’ Carnival (consolidated over more than a decade’s existence, because the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival is for all comers). And, above all of these, the Drag Queen Gala, which appeared on the programme with the start of the new century. In the 21st century, the Drag Queen Carnival is the watchword for the festivities in the Gran Canaria capital. On 18 March, we will once more be holding a Gala which is followed all round the world, registering worldwide trending topics year after year and symbolising the very pinnacle of modernity in this Carnival.
This act, which can be taken as the triumph of tolerance, diversity, of the breaching of social mores, of respect and of coexistence, a gala which blurs the borders between genders, which is a major symbol of freedom, and which is followed by millions of people worldwide, is being streamed on the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival Facebook page and on the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria YouTube channel, in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival 2022 playlist.
Photos: Tony Hernández
Daniela Medina Ortega, the Carnival Queen, is a practising doctor in Barcelona
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Sunday 13 March 2022. A Graduate in Medicine from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Daniela comes from a family which from the very cradle passed on to her its passion for Carnival and for the rigour of studies. So, as the “Earth” Carnival’s leading lady has told us, it wasn’t unusual to see her at the age of four as the flag bearer for the group that, along with Ramón Sánchez, her parents founded: the Río Bamba Comparsa.
She wasn’t able to dance in the Comparsa, because taking her studies so seriously and with such responsibility was incompatible with rehearsing with the groups, but she did take part in anything that didn’t interrupt her studies, such as the fancy dress contests. So, Carnival after Carnival, staying awake right to the end of the Gala which on Friday took her to the Olympus of Queens, she followed the coronation of her sister Silvana as Queen closely, the year that she too was awarded the sash of honour of Junior Queen, 2007. Fifteen years later, it’s Daniela who carries the surnames Medina Ortega once again to the Carnival throne, with a costume which already says a lot about the winner: Embracing a dream is the work of Juan Carlos Armas Febles, who has included, among others, Daniela’s parents in his team; the couple has extensive experience in Carnival and in the design and making of Carnival costumes. Daniela’s mother has been behind many of the renowned Chiara Girls’ wardrobes.
Curiously, this dream is a shared dream because it was Juan Carlos Armas himself who brought Silvana to the throne, and fifteen years later he has managed it again with her little sister.
As Daniela has confessed, the dream starts now, on the day when her reign starts, a reign which she takes as a very close link with her native land, the Canary Islands, and her city, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. For her, feeling herself to be a part of Carnival and of her island are one and the same thing, quite inseparable. This is why, from the very moment when she heard that the contender sponsored by El Gusto por el Vino and Dormitorum was the new monarch, she grasped the sceptre and the crown with pride and responsibility, in the knowledge that the thing which she so loved to do, spread the love for Carnival among all those around her in the city of Barcelona where she is now settled, practising as a doctor specialising in cosmetic medicine, was now a commitment, since “Carnival is a lifelong experience.”
And the Carnival organisers cannot be more satisfied to have an ambassadress who, as part of her personality and of her principles, assumes the sense of duty and of seriousness. Not only because she has been constant in reaching her goals and achieving the marks which opened the gates of the Faculty of Medicine to her, and afterwards to her Master’s Degree in Cosmetic Medicine and Capillary Surgery, but also because when there was call for it, right in the middle of the outbreak of COVID-19, she became fully involved and made herself available to the most vulnerable groups of society in a city which was hit hard by the pandemic, working with the elderly in Barcelona.
The Queen's moment
The return of the Gala in 2022, after a year under wraps due to the pandemic, is one of the high points in the programme. Choosing the Queen symbolises, more than anything else, the return of Carnival in all its splendour: it’s an event which is also broadcast on television both nationally and internationally, followed with great interest by viewers throughout the country. Not to mention, of course, the expectation generated among the local audience.
Santa Catalina Park, on a stage dedicated this year to the preservation of Planet Earth, will thus once again offer an evening’s entertainment where even the audience’s votes are counted, added to the votes of the various specialist juries. It’s no mean task, to choose the Carnival Queen. Minerva Hernández, the 2020 winner, will hand over her crown and her sceptre to the new monarch. And, we should note, she will do this after the longest reign ever remembered in these festivities: no less than two years, during which, like all her predecessors, she has also taken on the role of ambassadress for the festivities and their representative in the external promotional activities. This is something which is even more important in these latest editions, in which the Carnival is now being organised as a “Fiesta of National Tourist Interest.”
Know who I am, face mask?
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 8 March 2022. In the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival there has been a popular catchphrase since the festivities were officially recovered in 1976, after the Franco dictatorship. Members of the public in costume would greet those who were not dressed up with a classic “Know who I am, mascarita?”, challenging them that way to identify them behind a mask. “Mascaritas” (Masked revellers) was the term that came to be used to refer to people joining in on the festivities dressed up in costume. The heart and soul of the celebration.
This particularly notable edition of Carnival is marked by the safety measures reflecting the evolution of the public health situation: only galas and contests have been scheduled (although that’s no small matter, since they occupy over three weeks of the calendar). But life cannot go on without humour. People have remodelled the catchphrase. So now, at a contest where protection again infection is compulsory, the catchphrase “Know who I am, face mask?” is to be heard.
The fact is that the general public has comfortably taken on board the obligation to wear a face mask inside the enclosure of Santa Catalina Park, where the festivities’ major activities take place. It’s an unusual sight: an audience, in many cases in costume, wearing face masks. And it is also proof of the resilience of a celebration that always survives, despite the obstacles it has come up against along the path of its history.
It is the sign of a safe Carnival, where the organisers have taken the greatest of care to guarantee the proper environment for the galas and contests. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a city which in general has been keen to meet the measures imposed by the pandemic, has taken it on board without any fuss. Even before the festivities, and without it being compulsory, many citizens had maintained the face mask wearing habit outside. Today the face mask is also the password for a very special Carnival.
Carnival week for pets
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2 March 2022. The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival has, for over a decade now, shown itself to be a very special celebration for pets and their owners too. Every year a morning is set aside on the huge Santa Catalina Park stage to hold the Dog Carnival: a unique gala, with the dogs parading alongside their owners in the very heart of the Carnival, dressed up to match the theme assigned to each year’s edition. And on this occasion, the programme is dedicated to the conservation of Planet Earth. Could there be a more appropriate event for such a special edition of Carnival? The event will be on Sunday, 6 March, at 12 pm.
Before this, the big contests for the Carnival groups will take place, from Wednesday until Saturday. These are the Murga and Comparsa group contests; these groups, despite having had a year which made it difficult to rehearse and prepare their appearance on stage, won’t miss their big date with the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival.
So, ten Murga groups will be competing with their songs. These are the Carnival nights when these groups come out on stage dressed up in their costumes, their ingenuity and the back-up of all their preparation, to sing with great humour about the major current local and worldwide issues. The first two rounds are held on 2 and 3 March, and the grand finale, on Saturday, 5 March.
On Friday, 4 March, it’s the turn of the Comparsa contest; these groups are the very spirit of Carnival at its most musical, and they too have a long history in the city’s most important festivities.
But we mustn’t forget that the week can’t go by without celebrating the Junior Gala: young contenders parade in wonderfully detailed costumes, to delight an audience which always gives the participants all its support.
We should remind everyone that all these events are programmed with full consideration for the safety measures in place which reflect the evolution of the state of affairs healthwise, bearing in mind that greater precaution is called for in these times. Carnival adapts to survive too!
Carnival is for every age group
The first weekend of Earth Carnival (the 2022 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival) has once more been witness to the eruption of festivities in the city. Although always under conditions determined by the current health situation, the programme has got off to a strong start, with the Santa Catalina Park and its huge stage as a safe epicentre for the celebration of the main galas and contests. Not for nothing have the citizens of Las Palmas been waiting for two years to be able to experience that festive spirit once more. Or at least, its major shows.
After the popular local group La Trova performed the opening proclamation announcing the start of the Carnival, on Friday 25 February, the schedule moved on to important entries in this edition dedicated to the conservation of Planet Earth. The first event, on Saturday 26 February, was the draw to decide on the order of participation in the galas. For the Grand Carnival Queen Gala and the Drag Queen Gala, of course. But also for the Grand Dame Gala, held on Sunday 27 February, and the Junior Gala.
So, on the same stage and in front of a live audience, there were parades of drag queens, contenders for the junior crown, veteran candidates for the Grand Dame prize and young women aspiring to the great Carnival Queen's crown. They shared the limelight. The picture reflects the true spirit of the festivities in the city: Earth Carnival is, it's clear, a Carnival for everybody in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
The fancy dress contest which then took place on that same Saturday reflected what fans of Carnival the participants in the individual and group categories are: they love to dress up and to party, despite having less time this year to prepare for their appearance on stage.
On Sunday 27, the morning before the Grand Dame Gala, Santa Catalina Park hosted a junior encounter which confirmed that the Carnival has plenty of young blood: Murga groups with very young members and Comparsas of the same age displayed a passion for the event that has been running through their veins since the cradle. And that will continue to run throughout their lives, as the contenders for the Grand Dame crown showed that night.