Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2 March, 2020.— There were just two candidates still to present their routines at the great Drag Queen Gala in the Once Upon a Time Carnival. It was the final gala in the most highly attended festivities in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This year, 2020, the worldwide audience was once again enthralled by the drag show… and the final was also being watched on stage by a devoted audience in Santa Catalina Park. The moment had come for Sethlas.

That was when Borja Casillas really entered into the role that has made him famous: as Sethlas, he put on a spectacular show, which drew several rounds of applause from the audience. As well as his staging, dancing and impressive costume, he performed several pirouettes, surprisingly demanding for a drag artist in his high platform soles. But he pulled it off to perfection, with his fantasy “Si la tentación es hermosa imagínate el pecado” (“If the temptation is beautiful, just imagine the sin”). Supported by an effective dance troupe, Sethlas ended to thunderous cheers from the crowd, the best possible endorsement.

The audience gave his show an enthusiastic reception, and the jury (Carnival experts, journalists... and the viewers themselves watching a gala broadcast worldwide) awarded Borja his second Carnival victory (he had already won in 2017). He will act once again as a symbol of the festivity (together with the Carnival Queen, Minerva Hernández), and is now part of the history of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 28 February, 2020.—The arrival of the queens...and the Drag Queen: Once upon a time at Carnival comes to a close on the streets of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in a celebration-packed weekend headed by our monarchs. Our “royals” will step down from the stage - the scene of their coronation - to lead a bustling mass of costumed carnival-goers in non-stop parades throughout Saturday, 29 February and Sunday, 1 March. It is, indeed, the weekend we’ve all been waiting for, with the Grand Parade, the Children’s Parade and the Burial of the Sardine. Each one will be reigned by three queens and a drag - symbols of this celebration – who will be warmly welcomed by their adoring subjects.

The great carnival parade par excellence is known as the Cabalgata and is planned from 17.00 hrs onwards on Saturday the 29th. It will start from Castillo de La Luz, an old fortress where the islanders defended the city from buccaneers such as the British Drake and Hawkins, or the Dutch Van der Does. Over one hundred floats will leave the castle, decorated with in spirit of the 2020 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival theme “Once upon a time...” These colourfully decked-out floats will carry scores of dancing mascaritas (costumed carnival-goers) who’ll greet the cheering crowds all along the route towards San Telmo Park.

The Drag Queen will shine from the very beginning, hailed by the crowds as regent in the first ceremony in the company of the other drag contest finalists. Carnival Queen, Minerva Hernández, will also take the spotlight with her maids of honour, along with the Great Dame, Chari Alvarado, who was crowned queen of the senior category. And the final touch: the countless Carnival groups: murgas and comparsas that will sing and dance along the entire route towards Parque San Telmo to culminate in Santa Catalina Park for the last night - Noche de Carnival - and its concerts.

On the following day, Sunday 1 March, two parades are scheduled to leave the renovated boulevard of Mesa y López, one of the city’s main open-air shopping areas. The Children’s Parade starts at 17.00 hrs, led by our little queen and her maids of honour. The parade ends at Mercado del Puerto, a unique gastronomical and leisure hub with striking architecture designed by Gustavo Eiffel, located at the far end of Las Canteras beach.

Finally, the Burial of the Sardine will start from Mesa y López at 19.00 hrs. This symbolic funeral procession takes a huge mock fish to Las Canteras beach to burn it, accompanied by the Carnival Queen, Drag Queen and the Great Dame, along with all the Carnival groups and hoards of widows that weep inconsolably at the end of the celebrations. We say goodbye to this year’s festivities with the smouldering sardine evaporating out at sea, as dazzling fireworks light up Las Canteras to announce that, once upon a time…there was a fairy-tale Carnival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 24 February, 2020.— With the ongoing alert announced on the evening of Saturday, 22 February, by the Canary Island Government General Directorate of Safety and Emergencies, due to wind and sand haze in all the islands, the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival department will offer constant information on its international profiles in Facebook and Twitter: @LpaCarnival. It will also update the programme event by event on the corresponding tab in the lpacarnaval.com website, where it will give information about the relocation of events, as long as the weather situation allows the events to be held.

For the time being, the team will continue to work on preparing a schedule which will allow the maximum number possible of the events to be held. This schedule expects, as long as the alert is deactivated and the conditions are favourable, to hold the remainder of the Drag Queen Shortlisting event - with performances by the eight drag queens who could not perform last Saturday - today, Monday 24, and the Drag Queen Gala on Friday 28. For the time being, the programme cancels the traditional carnival scheduled originally for Monday, 24 February in the dual carriageway in the Centre.

The holding of the scheduled festivities is still subject to the changing weather conditions and to the reports and technical recommendations of Safety and Emergencies.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Saturday 22 February, 2020.—This story, starring Minerva Hernández, has a happy ending. Just as the clock was about to strike midnight on Friday 21 February, the youngster from Fuerteventura received her crown and sceptre and claimed her place on the throne, as no less than the Carnival Queen of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Minerva is a 26-year-old from Fuerteventura, where she lived her entire life until moving to the capital of Gran Canaria to study law, at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. She is currently studying a master’s degree and, during the little spare time she has, pursues one of her main passions: carnival. She explained at a press conference how she met her designer some years ago, when she worked with his team on the costume worn by Cristina López Lorenzo last year. The experience led them to work together again at his studio, where they produced “Vida” - a creation that won over the jury and the public in the vote for their favourite costume.

Minerva’s love for carnival stems from the cradle. Her parents, Esther and Felipe, from Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria respectively, are self-confessed carnival-goers, and Esther took her daughters to participate in a murga on the neighbouring island ever since they were small.

Minerva is not only an inquisitive, hardworking carnival-goer, but she’s also very appreciative: she confessed that the only word that she could think of during the performance was “thank you”. Thank you to all her team, her designer and the public who were captivated by the spectacular design, signed by Josué Quevedo for Multiópticas.

When asked about her most unforgettable moment, there was no question in her mind: her three minutes on stage absorbing the warmth of the public until the very last second.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 21 February, 2020.— Santa Catalina is the heart of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival: that heart beats non-stop throughout the programme, which always features the murgas and comparsas contest and the great galas in which the Queen or the Drag Queen of the festivities are chosen, on a large stage that, in 2020, recreates the world of Once upon a time at Carnival. As well as this, Santa Catalina Park is the centre of the events which are just entertainment, with no juries or scores, which enliven the Carnival Nights … and also the daytime celebrations. 

25 February, Carnival Tuesday (Mardi Gras), a bank holiday here, is the focal point for a great day of celebrations for all audiences, with live music on the main stage and in the entertainment area behind. From noon onwards, there’s room for too in a day that lasts until night-time with the appearance on the stage of Juanes, as the great international performer for the 2020 fiesta (18.00 hrs).

The Carnival has made these daytime sessions in Santa Catalina vital events in recent years. The carnival programme has been changing according to the demands of the public itself: in particular of family audiences, so the opportunities for enjoying this great winter fiesta in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have grown. This is something that is also appreciated by the many people passing through the city at this time of year, right in the high season for tourism: both for people staying in the city’s hotels and apartments, and the day-trippers from the south of the island, or the cruise ship passengers, who disembark for a few hours to join in on the Carnival.

Carnival Tuesday, Daytime Carnival
Tuesday, 25 February 2020
From 12.00 hrs onwards, Santa Catalina Park

Free entry for all until capacity is reached

Programme detail:

Main Stage

12.00 hrs. La Trova and Dj Toni Bob
18.00 hrs. Juanes

Leisure Area Stage

13.00 hrs. Dj Ulises Acosta
14.30 hrs. Última Llave
17.00 hrs. Ni 1 pelo de tonto

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 20 February, 2020.— This story began two decades ago: the organising committee of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival had the audacity, although not without a certain reticence, to include an explosive novelty in its programme. That is, a Drag Queen Gala in which the “reinonas” (crossdressing queens) as they were then known, would compete for the fiestas’ alternative sceptre. This was to be on a weekday, and without much attention from the media or television.

How the story has changed! That contest turned out to be perfectly in tune with the spirit of freedom that Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival has always exuded since its earliest days. That is, transgression, transformation into other fairytale creatures (of Carnival), the passport to provocation... to make people laugh, no holds barred: all this is taken as read in the most important festival in winter-time in the capital of Gran Canaria.

The Drag Queen Gala soon became a leading player in the programme (and moved from a weekday to the bank holidays). The massive influx of the public in the first years of its celebration in Santa Catalina lent weight to the innovation. And the drag queens themselves multiplied their registrations to such an extent that years ago now a shortlisting event has had to be held to choose the finalists for the grand gala.

In addition, since its inception, this Gala has featured performers of the stature of RuPaul, La Bouche, Bonnie Tyler, Tina Charles, Gloria Gaynor, Grace Jones, Sister Sledge, Alaska, Monica Naranjo and Village People ... among many others. Their presence has underlined the international impact of a Gala that started as a daring joke and ended up becoming a worldwide Trending Topic. The Carnival offers full freedom for transgression. And for the integration of everyone into the party. Today, the Drag Queens are mass idols in the festivities, and even the youngest of us chase after a selfie with these shining stars of the 21st Century Carnival.

This year, the shortlisting will take place on Saturday 22 February, and on Monday 24, the Drag Queen Gala. Both events are ticketed (purchasable on entradas.laprovincia.es or at the box office of Santa Catalina Park), but tickets usually sell out swiftly. The final, however, is broadcast worldwide by RTVE, on the website of Televisión Canaria and on the organisations’ social profiles (@lpacarnival). All the same, this spirit of transgression is always juxtaposed at a right angle to the whole carnival programme: it’s enough simply to take part in the Daytime Carnival or the Carnival nights. 

Drag Queen Gala
Monday, 24 February 2020
21.00 hrs. Santa Catalina Park
Tickets: sold out
After that, Carnival Night in the surroundings of Santa Catalina

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 19 February, 2020.—  On Friday, 21 February, the Carnival of Once upon a Time chooses its Queen (21.00 hrs), in an event broadcast internationally by RTVE, by Television Canaria and by the Carnival profiles on the social networks (@lpacarnival). The event usually sells out (like the Drag Nights, tickets are sold at entradas.laprovincia.es and at the box office in Santa Catalina Park). And it is, without a doubt, one of the great events of the programme. On this occasion, a fairytale queen will be chosen for the festivities, to reign over the other characters in the celebrations.

Up to 14 candidates are competing in 2020 for a sceptre (this year, made from recycled glass) that gives prestige not only to the winner but also to the sponsors who support the process of designing and making up the eye-catching Carnival fantasy that each candidate wears on stage. Many kilos of feathers, ornaments and accessories bearing the signatures of different designers, specialising in Carnival, and who even have an exclusive fashion show for this unique sector in periods outside the programme.

The Queen is the great symbol of the Carnival: her crown has been awarded since the dawn of these celebrations in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. She evokes the traditional Carnival, the essential values of the celebration and the very history of an event that, from its earliest days, has built its entire programme around this long-awaited Gala.

Carnival Queen Gala

Friday, 21 February 2020

21.00 hrs. Santa Catalina Park

Price of entry: €10 at the box office in Santa Catalina and at entradas.laprovincia.es
Afterwards, Carnival Night in the surroundings of Santa Catalina

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 18 February, 2020.— Once upon a time at Carnival... with a very special section in its schedule. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's grand winter fiesta has the big weekend underlined in red on its calendar, stretching from Friday 21 to Tuesday 25 February (Carnival Tuesday, which is a bank holiday). The grand galas (Queen and Drag Queen) are packed into those dates, lively days of celebration in the daytime and more concerts in the Carnival nights, the junior celebrations in Triana and the parade in Las Canteras. The city lives and breathes the Carnival of children's stories, and visitors can enjoy this atmosphere in the main settings in the middle of the city... and at any time.

To begin with, on Friday 21, the Carnival chooses its Queen (21.00 hrs), in an event to be broadcast internationally by RTVE, Televisión Canaria and the Carnival's profiles on the social networks (@lpacarnival). Tickets for this event normally sell out (like those for the Drag nights, sold at entradas.laprovincia.es and at the Santa Catalina Park ticket office). But to be in Santa Catalina Park, even outside the stage enclosure, is always a very special experience: to breathe in the pure Carnival atmosphere... and the partying continues through the night with concerts in the leisure zone located next to the Cruise Ship Dock.

On Saturday 22, those travelling with children can go to the historic Calle Mayor in Triana (from 12 noon onwards) and to the Las Canteras Beach (from 17.00 hrs onwards) to discover the animated staging of Carnival in the street, suitable for all ages.

And, that night, from 21.00 hrs onwards, the Drag Queen Shortlisting will take place, with 29 drag queens competing to be among the 16 finalists who will be the stars of the grand gala on Monday 24 (21.00 hrs). This Shortlisting, which fills the park with advance sale ticket-holders, is not broadcast. Images of the event are not published either: the participants want to keep their show secret, to maintain the surprise for the television broadcast of the final: once again RTVE broadcasting internationally, Televisión Canaria and the social network profiles of @lpacarnival.

Alongside all of this, this Saturday the Santa Catalina setting keeps the party going with a unique Cock Fight (Carnaval Red Bull), where national rappers compete in an atmosphere both youthful and lively, all taking place in the leisure zone (from 22.30 hrs onwards).

On Sunday 23, Santa Catalina doesn't take a rest, and the morning sees the celebration of its junior murga (carnival street bands) encounters, and the daytime concerts, until the time comes for the grand Junior Parade. From 17.00 hrs onwards, from León y Castillo Street where it passes by the Metropole Swimming Club, all the way to Santa Catalina Park again with a grand party for the little ones as the climax of the day. It is, without a doubt, a Sunday worth enjoying as a family.

Monday is Drag Queen night as we said, although beforehand, in and around Vegueta and the course of the Guiniguada Ravine, which marks off the original city, there is a Traditional Carnival celebration: a homage to the Canary Island immigrants who returned from America, dressed in white and welcomed with a cloud of talcum powder. It's best to go well equipped, because the atmosphere is always loaded... with white smoke that points to where the fun is going on.

Finally, on Carnival Tuesday, Santa Catalina has concerts and daytime Carnival celebrations again, until evening comes: Juanes' concert is scheduled for 18.00 hrs. He's the international star of these fiestas and the crowning touch to these non-stop Carnival days.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 13 February, 2020. — Every year Santa Catalina Park acquires a special atmosphere on a day designated in the programme: it’s actually a morning, in which, in full daylight, an important collection of pets, 20 in 2020, gather on the spectacular Carnival stage. The dogs, along with their owners, show how much they are a part of the party. This is the Dog Carnival, a competition in which dogs compete for the prize for the best fancy dress, and in which families and visitors make up a heterogeneous and numerous audience in this setting.

Every year Santa Catalina Park acquires a special atmosphere on a day designated in the programme: it’s actually a morning, in which, in full daylight, an important collection of pets, 20 in 2020, gather on the spectacular Carnival stage. The dogs, along with their owners, show how much they are a part of the party. This is the Dog Carnival, a competition in which dogs compete for the prize for the best fancy dress, and in which families and visitors make up a heterogeneous and numerous audience in this setting.

The Dog Carnival is a date that both young and old don’t miss out on. Children, in fact, enjoy this dog festival in a special way; it’s a festival in which many other pets, out-of-competition, appear in the park dressed in their best fancy dress. The festive family atmosphere becomes a declaration of love for the animals, clearly born to make them a part of the celebrations.

Along with this local audience, it is common to see many visitors in Santa Catalina on this unique morning, who join the crowd and take advantage of the opportunity to complete their particular graphic report of the dressed-up dogs with their mobile phones or cameras. The image of the people from the cruise ships who, having just disembarked on the nearby Santa Catalina quay, join the party, which starts at noon on Sunday 16th February, is already a classic one, and is followed by a full Carnival Day and concerts in Santa Catalina. If the traveller gets a good vibe from Carnival and from pets, this is a unique occasion to enjoy both passions at the same time.

Dogs Carnival

Sunday, 16 February 2020

12:00 hrs. Santa Catalina Park

Free entry for all until capacity is reached

After that, there is a programme of family concerts on the main stage and in the leisure area of Santa Catalina.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 11 February, 2020. — The Drag Queen contest was incorporated into the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival two decades ago: it was a daring and novel initiative by the organisers, but it immediately met with an enthusiastic response from the public. The Drag Queen Gala soon become a major event on the programme in its own right. And the number of entries began to exceed the possibilities of a contest that now had to be televised, adapting its structure to a show to be broadcast on screens and establishing specific times for the candidates to make their appearances.

So a preselection of contestants had to be organised to decide who would compete in the grand final gala. At first the event was held in closed venues of limited size, and cameras and broadcasting of images were never allowed, so that the candidates who got through this round could keep the surprise factor for the big night in Santa Catalina Park, in front of thousands of people.

...But in the end this phase had to move to the Park itself, for reasons of capacity, and because the Drag community wanted all the participants to be able to enjoy being on the big stage for the festivities, whether or not they reached the final. Nowadays, the Pre-Drag is one of the major events in the Carnival programme: as with the Drag Queen Gala, the tickets sell out soon after going on sale, and a huge crowd fills Santa Catalina on a night when cameras are still not allowed. It is perhaps an even more daringly risqué night, on which the drag artists don’t have to adapt to television or the media: it’s never disappointing.

Tickets for the preselection will go on sale on Wednesday 12 February at 9am, both on entradas.laprovincia.es and at the box office in Santa Catalina Park. They are usually snapped up within barely an hour, and those who manage to get hold of them will be the lucky ones who will be able to enjoy an unbeatable night.