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Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday 12 February, 2024. If there is a hallmark which defines modern Carnival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, that will be platforms. The 21st Century Carnival in the Gran Canaria capital is marked definitively by the appearance of the Drag Queens. With over two decades of galas behind them, they have emerged as a really singular feature, decisive in ensuring that the city’s carnival celebrations achieved the status of Fiesta of International Tourist Interest.

In this edition of the Carnivals of the World, which for 2024 has taken the programme of events back to the La Isleta neighbourhood (the quarter which brought the fiesta back after Franco’s dictatorship), the grand Drag Queen Gala occupies a special date: Friday 16 February, on the main stage located in Belén María Square. Starting at 21:30, thirteen aspiring contestants will compete in this packed setting for the Drag sceptre, with the show being broadcast both nationally and internationally. It’s a great day for the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival!

After the Gala, the concerts and musical shows will continue on this same stage, and on the other two stages located nearby: eclectic events for a range of audiences, on one of the most important Carnival Nights, with the crowds in their costumes enjoying these celebrations to the full and with total intensity. This is the Carnival you find out on the streets of the Gran Canaria capital.

A display, the popular one, which will carry on marking the final weekend of the programme. And thus, on Saturday 17 February, from 16:00 onwards, the Grand Parade will leave from the La Isleta neighbourhood itself to wind through the centre of the city until it reaches San Telmo Park, on the threshold of the city’s historic centre. Over a hundred floats carrying people in costume, Murga groups, Comparsa groups and, of course, the Queens and Drag Queens, make up a superb parade which the Gran Canaria capital experiences each year, like an apotheosic festive celebration, where the outstanding features are costumes, shamelessness and transgression.

The last Saturday on the programme doesn’t end there, by any stretch of the imagination. Concerts are the main draw again on the last Carnival Night on the three stages in La Isleta, with a special appearance on the billboards, that of the international performer Manuel Turizo (23:00), a great attraction for the audience on this night of vast becostumed crowds.

To bid our farewell to the Carnivals of the World there is still one more day of widows in the sun, in the Daytime Carnival summoned to the same zone of the city (from 12 noon), until the Burial of the Sardine leaves for the Las Canteras Beach, at 19:30, for the traditional burning of the fish to mark the death of each Carnival. This is a day dominated by hysterical and shameless professional mourners and their grief, in an amusing mourning ritual which lends its tears to the farewell to the fiestas.

That said, this Carnival won’t end without leaving us the theme which will run through its successor in 2025. Starting at 21:00, the organisers will announce the allegory that has been chosen by popular vote, which will mean that the general public can get ahead in deciding what costumes will be best suited for next year and, in particular, give the Murga and Comparsa Groups and the contenders for the crowns enough time to get to work on the costumes they will wear on stage 12 months hence.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1 March 2023. 3 March is the day: the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Drag Queen Gala will celebrate its 25th anniversary. It marks a quarter of a century over which the Drag Queen throne aspirants have not only gained great popularity among the general public in the main festivities of the city, but also in which the event has become the unique sign of identity of a Carnival that has just been designated a “Fiesta of International Tourist Interest” by the Spanish state.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 27 February 2023. The 2023 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival has a Queen: Lola Ortiz was crowned on Friday 24 February on the spectacular stage in Santa Catalina Park. It is a “Studio 54” built to set the scene for a festival dedicated this year to the world of the legendary New York club, and has had one of those weekends that best illustrate the meaning and spirit of the celebration in the city.

Lola triumphed in a gala with eleven contestants for the crown, also featuring the international supermodel Nieves Álvarez as co-presenter and the Venezuelan singer-songwriter Carlos Baute, broadcast live on the public networks RTVE and RTVC. The night showed the world the spectacular and unique dresses worn by the candidates: original creations prepared for months by the designers, whose work showcases all the colour of the Las Palmas Carnival.

The celebrations include everyone: from the thousands of members of the public in fancy dress who enjoyed the music and events of the “Daytime Carnival” in Santa Catalina to the families and younger carnival-goers, also in their costumes, who were able to enjoy the Children’s Parade held on the afternoon of Sunday 26 February.

Up till then, the Carnival had been going non-stop in the park, with a great parade of groups (murgas, comparsas, drag queens and the Queen herself) on Saturday 25, Carlos Baute’s concert that night, and the unique Dog Carnival held on Sunday morning with 15 candidates (and their owners) in a contest that is also a hallmark of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival. The pets in their costumes reflect the openness of the festival programme to every kind of audience. All this in a weekend that concluded with the satirical songs of the entertaining chirimurgas in the park

The Carnival was also supplemented on these evenings by the concerts in the setting of the Plaza de la Música, at the western end of Las Canteras beach, with stages for performances by artists of various kinds, in front of thousands of people who experience these weeks with special intensity.

The climax of the programme, however, will come on Friday 3 March, with the Drag Queen Gala, in which 14 candidates will strut their stuff in Santa Catalina Park, which will once again become a global showcase for the festival and the city.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 20 February 2023. Drag Queen Gala in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year in the 2023 Carnival, dedicated to the world of the legendary disco Studio 54. A quarter of a century, no less, of an event that has become the unique distinctive feature of the Las Palmas festival. Indeed, drag has achieved the greatest global impact as the face of a celebration that Spain has just declared a “Festival of International Tourist Interest”: the gala is followed on television, social media and conventional and digital news channels all over the world. And its platform shoes have become a trademark of the modern Carnival.

The festival still maintains the major traditional events on its agenda (the contests for murgas and comparsas, the election of the Carnival Queen, the children’s programme), and in the new century it has gradually incorporated attractions that are now well established (the International Body Painting Contest and the Dog Carnival). And it has confirmed its image as a special celebration, not only for the way it is experienced in the street, but also for the appeal and pulling power of its platform-soled stars.

The city, an urban tourist destination in which visitors share everyday life with the locals in a totally natural way, daringly and audaciously adopted this innovative contest at the end of the twentieth century. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has always been an open, cosmopolitan city, whose Port of La Luz, a key logistical centre for Atlantic shipping, is a permanent gateway. However, 25 years ago society in general had not yet evolved as far as the current model of coexistence and diversity.

The very fact that a small group of people involved in the artistic direction and production of the Carnival took the step of conceiving and proposing a drag contest in the city was a real demonstration of the free-spirited nature of Las Palmas. These people found out about an incipient contest for transvestites being held in the south of Gran Canaria: the island’s major tourist area, which also had a specific space for the LGTBI community in its vicinity.

The ideas captured in that contest, inspired by the world of the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, by Stephan Elliott (1994), and the aesthetics and style of emerging stars like RuPaul confirmed the original concept of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Gala. The great contest was eventually scheduled in the programme and grew year by year, so much so that a finalists’ preselection phase was needed: there are many drag artists wanting to be included in the grand final night in Santa Catalina Park on its sumptuous stage.

From the first moment in the history of the gala, several participants added their characteristic platform shoes, the unique figure of the Drag Queen emerged, and year by year these contests have been capturing attention within the city and the island and beyond. On Friday 3 March the 2023 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival’s Drag Queen Gala will once again be the focus of attention of the worldwide drag phenomenon.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 14 February 2023. The Studio 54 Carnival is also a party for the whole family, and something for its youngest members to enjoy. As is the case every year, the most popular celebration in Las Palmas de Gran Canarias includes a special section presented as a Children’s Carnival, one of the highlights of the programme for the main weekend of this 2023 festival dedicated to the world of the legendary New York disco club.

It consists of the Children’s Gala, which will be held on Sunday 19 February (at 6.30 pm, free admission until full capacity is reached) on the main stage in Santa Catalina Park. At this gala the youngest monarch of the festivities will be chosen, with five girls and two boys competing for the position of Junior Queen or King, supported by their respective sponsors, with costumes on which their designers have spared no effort (often also linked to the main Carnival Queen contest). This event can be followed live on TVC (Canary Islands TV) and also via the Carnival distribution list on the organisers’ YouTube profile: Promotion of the City of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria or on the Carnival’s international social media channels: LPACarnival on Fb or LPACarnaval on Ig.

Before this event, the Studio 54 Carnival actually had a full-scale preview with the children’s fancy dress festival held in Santa Catalina Park on 12 February: a real party for the youngest members of the family. As many as 1,150 children from 32 schools and art and dance academies participated in this costume matinée in front of 3,500 spectators: clear evidence of the strong family appeal of the Las Palmas Carnival. The day before, on 11 February, children’s murgas and comparsas regaled a large audience with their talent and commitment to continue being part of the festivities in the years to come, at the Children’s Group Event.

Carnival Tuesday

The children’s schedule is interwoven with the events on the big day, Carnival Tuesday, 21 February, in the daytime celebrations around Santa Catalina Park, in which various audiences share spaces from midday onwards. This is one of the highlights of a festival that also includes another event of special interest for families: the well-established Dog Carnival, which has been part of the programme for more than a decade.

As well as attracting the many tourists who visit the city during this period, it also brings together young and old alike in the crowds that attend the show that morning. It will take place on Sunday 26 February, with free admission until full capacity is reached, all for the sake of enjoying a parade of costumed pets that always arouse the admiration of the audience. It will be followed by more concerts in the same area for a range of audiences.

Children’s Parade

On that same Sunday, but in the afternoon, the young ones will have their big event: the Great Children’s Parade, a cavalcade of carriages and costumes with a long tradition in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It is the best proof of how central a place the days devoted to the youngest participants occupy in the carnival programme.

The “junior” cavalcade will depart from the Castillo de la Luz at 5 pm and make its way to Santa Catalina Park, where it will reach its festive climax with a plan designed exclusively for the audience of children. It is the big popular date for these carnival-goers, always accompanied by their families at these events.

The Studio 54 Carnival will come to an end on Sunday 5 March, with the usual Burial of the Sardine: the parade that accompanies a large figure of the fish from Santa Catalina, to be burned on Las Canteras Beach, always with spectacular fireworks. The viudas (widows) have pride of place in a procession joined, once again, by participants of all kinds. The timetable (it starts at 7 pm) also allows many families to come and bid farewell to their Carnival, albeit in a somewhat irreverent manner.

The 2023 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival marks the return of the festival without restrictions, after the years affected by the impact of the pandemic. The carnivals of Gran Canaria’s capital adapted and maintained their connection with the public and their international reach. However, this year’s programme allows the street celebrations to get back into full swing. Day and night. And with a full schedule of free concerts.

Carlos Baute and Carlos Vives in Santa Catalina

The theme of these celebrations focuses on the iconic New York club Studio 54 and the extensive soundtrack provided by the Disco music of the 70s, although the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival always has a space of its own for Latin and contemporary rhythms. As far as the Daytime Carnival is concerned, in Santa Catalina Park, where the festival stage is set up every year (hosting the main galas and contests), the programme includes several events in the winter sun, ideal for dancing and partying.

After the murgas and the comparsas competitions, and the Children’s and Grand Dame galas, Santa Catalina will host its first Daytime Carnival on Tuesday 21 February, Carnival Tuesday, with several popular local groups livening up a day that will conclude with the prestigious International Body Painting Contest on stage. It will be a foretaste of more high-profile musical events in that same space.

On Saturday 25 February, after the Grand Parade of Carnival Groups, the Venezuelan singer-songwriter Carlos Baute will give a keenly awaited concert in the park (10 pm), which will mark his return to the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival. The following morning, Sunday 26, music will be heard again in Santa Catalina with another powerful performance by local bands from 1 pm, once the famous Dog Carnival has finished.

Finally, once the Studio 54-themed Carnival has crowned its Drag Queen on the last weekend of the programme, Carlos Vives will be the star of the closing event of the festivities in Santa Catalina, on Sunday 5 March, in a concert scheduled for 3 pm (after another Daytime Carnival, this one in San Telmo). This will be the prelude to the Burial of the Sardine, which brings the events to an end with a parade from Santa Catalina to Las Canteras Beach.

Two stages next to Las Canteras

At the same time, the Carnival Nights will have an extensive repertoire of performances in the Plaza de la Música, located next to the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, an emblematic cultural icon of the city, named in honour of the immortal tenor (a native of Las Palmas), whose figure can be seen in an imposing sculpture, right next to it, that dominates the western end of Las Canteras Beach. There, at the end of the beach and in the shelter of the Auditorium, the Studio 54  carnival has two stages set up for the concerts: Disco Salsa and Dance Urban.

From Friday 10 February to Sunday 5 March, the Plaza de la Música will be the central night-time location for the festival’s dancing and music, with performances from 9 pm to 3 am. On Carnival Tuesday, 21 February, the space will also host a Daytime Carnival, with music from noon onwards.

So the Plaza de la Música confirms the position it has acquired as the city’s musical location par excellence in recent years, when it has been hosting events such as the Festival Cero indie music festival and the new Senior Festival, focusing on an older audience. Other concerts and events have made this square an ideal place for entertainment aimed at a range of audiences. It also serves as a unique vantage point from which to enjoy spectacular views of the entire course of Las Canteras Beach along the nearby extension of its walkway. It provides what is required at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival: a party very close to the beach.