The great platform competition
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 9 am, 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.
The fancy-dress fiesta
That spirit has lasted over time, when it comes to identifying Carnival as an occasion where irony, humour and fiction give meaning to the celebrations. This is something which has been held onto in the celebrations out in the street, and which is also reflected in the adults’ fancy-dress competition, which fills Santa Catalina Park every year for one of the most unalloyed moments on the fiestas’ calendar.
In this competition, which you can take part in as an individual or in groups, the contenders for the prizes show their ingenuity in coordinating their costume with the topic chosen each year to give the fiestas a common theme: in 2020, Once upon a time at Carnival. What’s more, the groups demonstrate a surprising capacity to coordinate their outfits with their staging, in a purely amateur activity. For visitors, the fancy-dress fiesta, always open to all, is a must, to soak up the real essence of Carnival.
Adults’ fancy-dress festival
Thursday, 13 February 2020
9 pm Santa Catalina Park
Free entry for all until capacity is reached
A Carnival for today in yesterday's city
The streets of the old city centre are the scene of performances by the Carnival groups, street music and live concerts with bands playing dance music, and DJs taking part.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 10 February, 2020. The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival has been associated since its earliest days with the picturesque La Isleta quarter, built under the wing of the international traffic generated by the Port of Las Palmas. This is why, even today, Santa Catalina Park, next to the cruise-ship dock, is the heart of the main events of the fiestas. But the Carnival isn’t limited to this iconic square: the original city, the historic Vegueta quarter, has gone from strength to strength once more in recent years when it comes to celebrating Carnival out in the street.
In fact, the pregón (the official opening of Carnival) is held in Santa Ana Square; the square’s layout anticipates the colonial cities that the Spanish Crown was later to build on the other side of the Atlantic, with the two de facto authorities facing each other. On one side, the imposing Cathedral, on the other, the Casas Consistoriales, the City Hall buildings, still in use today for the City Council meetings.
However, the most important event of the festivities in the old city takes place on Saturday 15 February: the Daytime Carnival in Vegueta (from 12 pm onwards, and at 11 am in Santa Ana for the junior activities). There, next to the first streets to be laid in a capital which was founded in 1478, around the Casa Colón (where the discoverer Columbus made an official stopover before his first journey to America) and the riverbed of the Guiniguada Ravine (which separates the old city from the more modern one), crowds gather together in a huge popular fiesta. A grand scale celebration on a unique stage, the pure heart of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The Vegueta Carnival is full of life, spontaneous and fun-packed. If anyone is passing through the city on these dates, a visit to the historic quarter of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a must. In full daylight, the fancy-dress party is at its absolute best.
Obispo Codina, Calvo Sotelo, Pelota and Mendizábal Streets, and Mesa de León Square will be full of party-goers enjoying this fiesta; the schedule includes street bands and concerts with bands playing dance music live, and Carnival groups.
Detailed programme:
11 am to 12 pm. Junior Carnival, Santa Ana Square
12 pm to 8 pm. Live music
Orquesta Combo Dominicano
Muelle Viejo group
1 pm. Carnival Street Band > Mendizábal Street to Obispo Codina Street
Photos: Quique Curbelo
Ticket sales begin for the 2020 Carnival Queen Gala, Drag Queen Preselection, Murgas contest, final round, and Drag Queen Gala
In all cases a maximum of four tickets may be purchased per person.
Ticket sales for the Drag Queen Preselection and the Drag Queen Gala will begin on the first day at 9 am.
Tickets can be purchased through entradas.laprovincia.es or at the box office in Santa Catalina Park (by the Miller Building).
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 7 February, 2020. Tickets sales begin on a phased basis for the only four paying events on the programme of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival: the Carnival Queen Gala, the Drag Queen Preselection, the Final of the Murgas Contest, and the Drag Queen Gala.
The first to go on sale will be for the Carnival Queen Gala; these can be purchased from Tuesday 11 February, starting at 10 am, either through entradas.laprovincia.es or at the box office set up in Santa Catalina Park, by the Miller Building (opening hours for the other days are 10 am–1 pm and 2 pm–8 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am–1 pm on Saturday and Sunday).
Tickets to attend the Drag Queen Preselection will go on sale on Wednesday 12 February at 9 am, those for the Murgas Final on Thursday 13 February at 10 am, and finally those for the Drag Queen Gala on Friday 14 February at 9 am.
All tickets have been kept at the same prices as in previous years: for the keenly awaited showdown between the murga groups there is a single price of €5, tickets for the Carnival Queen Gala and the Drag Queen Preselection are €10 each, and for the Drag Queen Gala two options are available: €12 in the arena (standing) and €15 for a seat on the stands.
In all cases, purchases are limited to a maximum of four tickets per person.
The order is:
Carnival Queen Gala: From Tuesday 11 February at 10 am. Single price: €10. Ticket sales: box office in Santa Catalina Park (Monday to Friday, 10 am–1 pm and 2 am–8 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 10 am–1 pm) and at entradas.laprovincia.es. Each person can purchase a maximum of four tickets.
Drag Queen Preselection: From Wednesday 12 February at 9 am. Single price: €10. Ticket sales: at entradas.laprovincia.es and at the box office in Santa Catalina Park (from the first day of ticket sales, if there are any left, the box office will be active 10 am–1 pm and 2 pm–8 pm and 10 am–1 pm on Saturday and Sunday). Each person can purchase a maximum of four tickets.
Murgas contest, final round: From Thursday 13 February at 10 am. Single price: €5. Ticket sales: box office in Santa Catalina Park (Monday to Friday, 10 am–1 pm and 2 pm–8 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 10 am–1 pm) and at entradas.laprovincia.es. Each person can purchase a maximum of four tickets.
Drag Queen Gala: From Friday 14 February at 9 am. Single price: €12 (standing area) and €15 (terraces). Ticket sales: at entradas.laprovincia.es and at the box office in Santa Catalina Park (from the first day of ticket sales, if there are any left, the box office will be active 10 am–1 pm and 2 pm–8 pm and 10 am–1 pm on Saturday and Sunday). Each person can purchase a maximum of four tickets.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria lets itself be swept away by Carnival's great fable
This year this fiesta is a tale which builds up around Santa Catalina Park, the place where all the main acts are held, with a stage which has been built for that very objective. But it actually begins in Vegueta (7 February, with the official opening speech at 9 pm), the original birthplace of a city which is now the main hub of the mid Atlantic: a compulsory connection when crossing between Europe, Africa and America. This is why Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is an open, cosmopolitan and multicultural city. And this is why its Carnival is a reflection of all of that. And that’s going to be the case again until 1 March.
The traveller can enjoy this fiesta throughout a programme which gives a leading role in its first week to the murgas and the comparsas (satirical performances and street bands) after choosing its Grand Dame (9 February, at 8 pm, in Santa Catalina): the first member of a court where there is room for both sexes, young, adult and elderly. Carnival is for everyone in this story.
That first week of the celebrations also boasts the fancy-dress competition (pure Carnival, Thursday 13 at 9 pm). And the junior crown will be chosen (Junior Gala, Sunday 16, 6.30 pm). All these events, such as the murgas and comparsas competitions, on these dates, are free entry and open to the public.
The exception is the murgas final on 15 February (8 pm). It’s also important to keep a close eye on the dates when the organisers announce the sale of tickets for the Queen Gala, the Drag Queen Shortlisting and the Drag Queen Gala. These acts fill up the big weekend of the fiesta, between 21 and 25 February, and although the prices are very reasonable, tickets (at the ticket office and over the internet) are in high demand: tickets sell out in hours.
Meanwhile, another unmissable feature on the programme are the Carnival gatherings in the street, which are also daytime events: in Vegueta (15 February), Santa Catalina (25) and Las Canteras (22). As well as the grand cavalcade (29). It’s here that costume turns into the real king of the tale of Carnival.
Carnival with all the family (2)
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival, designated a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest, becomes the epicentre of activity for almost a whole month for a city with a different way of living through the winter. People living here are passionate about the event, and it works its charms on visitors who can take advantage of the dates to join the celebrations in the street, and who also attend the great galas in the programme. The Carnival Queen Gala or the famous Drag Queen Gala, followed worldwide, are the identifying features of a fiesta, which, all the same, also sets aside plenty of space in the programme for family events. Indeed, the little ones have a whole calendar of entertainment over these days in the Gran Canaria capital, immersed in its own Carnival culture.
The 2019 festivities, themed around A Night in Rio, in tribute to the Rio de Janeiro carnival celebrations, as a symbol of openness, freedom and integration. And, like every previous year, the schedule planned by the organisers offers a great range of things to do for younger carnival-goers. On the one hand, there are acts which are specifically designed for children. And on the other, there are different events suitable for people of all ages, which can be experienced in the city as a family. This is another characteristic feature of this Carnival which is unique, contemporary and belongs to a city which is not only transformed by Carnival but also transforms itself for Carnival. In this case, from 15 February until 10 March 2019.
The first weekend with children at centre stage
On the first day, when the opening proclamation takes place in Plaza de Santa Ana, right in the historic centre, families can get an advance taste of the festivities with a musical parade proclaiming the start of Carnival, as it passes through the city’s oldest streets. This is only an appetiser for everything that will take place later around the Parque Santa Catalina, where each year a stage is built (designed according to the allegory that the citizens choose each year as the theme for the Carnival): this is where all the great spectacles of the festivities take place.
The first, Saturday 16 February, with the junior comparsas – stage shows – contest (7 pm), where visitors can see for themselves how the Carnival’s youngest talents experience the festivities. On the following day, from 11 am onwards, Santa Catalina brings together a multitude of junior groups as they celebrate their own fancy dress festival. Their families cheer them on from the audience… as do a good crowd of tourists who pass by the stage on their visits to the city: guests at its hotels and apartments, day-trippers from the south of the island… or people on the cruises that have put in at the nearby Santa Catalina Dock, and who are becoming regulars at these events in the park.
Daytime and Pet Carnival
The first full week of the programme is devoted to the murgas and comparsas competitions, although on the Saturday and Sunday, families travelling to the city have other opportunities to join the celebrations. Among these is the Vegueta Daytime Carnival; it’s a good idea to go early if you’re with children, before the multitudinous crowd takes over the streets again. This is the programme for Saturday 23 February: the first of the daytime fiestas that fill so much of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival Schedule, which repeats these celebrations in the sunlight on two Sundays, 24 February and 3 March, and on Carnival Tuesday (5 March) in Santa Catalina Park, and on Saturday 2 March in and around Triana’s Calle Mayor, in the historic heart of the city once again.
Sunday 24 February is also a chance for the little ones to get to know the Dog Carnival (12 pm). The pets in their costumes, together with their owners, gather at Santa Catalina to compete on stage in a unique competition, followed from the stands with the same spirit. What a gathering of Carnival dogs, showing off their costumes in this singular social happening.
The kids’ throne
On that same Sunday, 24, the Parque Santa Catalina is taken over by the candidates for Junior Queen or King (7 pm). A competition with very young contenders for the junior crown of the Carnival. It is no insignificant matter: many of the designers who compete in the big gala with their spectacular designs are also the designers behind the kids’ costumes. This gala is closely followed by the families, and reveals to the visitor the importance in the fiesta of the Queen’s dresses.
A Tuesday for the little ones
On Carnival Tuesday, 5 March, the Gran Canaria capital’s Carnival schedule dedicates a great day to kids. It’s the day of the Junior Parade, which leaves from Castillo de La Luz at 5 pm, and ends in Santa Catalina. It’s the festivities’ great junior procession, where groups with the youngest Carnival participants take part, alongside floats and a multitude of families in fancy dress. The parade ends with a great children’s party in the Parque Santa Catalina, with musical performances. Without a doubt, a great opportunity for the little ones to understand the importance of the Carnival and to join in the fun of the great fancy dress party.
All hail the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival Royalty! (2)
Little over two weeks in, the city has already chosen its Carnival Queen, Erika Echuaca Sebe, who was crowned for her ensemble under the fantasy Volar sin Alas (Flying without wings). The elegant candidate, a second-generation immigrant, will represent Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at tourist promotion events overseas along with Pedro Bethencourt Guerra –also known as Drag Chuchi–, the winner of the world-renowned Drag Queen Gala who over the last few years (included 2019) has been a global trending topic on Twitter and in the limelight for fans worldwide thanks to social media and television. It’s no mystery why tickets get sold out so quickly.
Chuchi took the stage with her show Repite mi nombre (Repeat my name), which ultimately gave her the winning sceptre and the right to participate in the Grand Parade that the city celebrates on 9 March. Everyone will be there; even the Carnival Queen and another royal figure that is a living representation of the importance of these festivities in the Gran Canarian capital.
We’re talking about Luisa Lozano, the Grand Dame of the A Night in Rio Carnival, dressed in Stampa do Brasil, a design fit for the 2019 Carnival. The Junior Queen, Náyade Pérez Castro, with her Mexican-themed fantasy, Serenata para usted, cosita linda (A Serenade for You, pretty thing), led the mass Junior Parade on 5 March, Carnival Tuesday. Both junior and veteran are also part of the Carnival’s great hall of fame.
These reigns are a celebration of all the people that participate intensely in Carnival: designers, sponsors, and contestants who have been working all year for the throne. Although, we shouldn’t forget another key figure in Carnival: all the people showing off their best costumes in Santa Catalina.
How to enjoy Once upon a time at Carnival as a family
As well as this, in this year, the theme chosen as the setting for Carnival could not be more suitable for children: the world of stories and fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel, the Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk… The universe to choose a costume from is practically limitless if what you want is to enjoy the celebrations as a family, and in line with Carnival fashion for 2020. There are plenty of establishments for those passing through if they want, with costumes and complements on sale, in the big shopping centres in the Gran Canaria capital, or in the open air shopping areas like Triana or Mesa y López.
Children’s schedule
Have we got a costume already? In that case, it’s time to take a look at the programme, and to choose the moments when we want to enjoy the children’s Carnival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The celebrations start on 7 February, with the Official Opening in Santa Ana Square, right in the heart of the historic centre of the city, preceded by a Carnival Parade which is a good first point of contact (8.30 pm, in the area around the Cathedral).
The competitions for the youngest audience start on Saturday, 8 February, on the huge Santa Catalina stage (a magic place where the stories will unfold). The children’s street bands make their debut there (7 pm) and a large number of groups of children in fancy dress will show themselves off on Sunday, 9 February, at 11 am, in a massive family encounter. As is the case for all the children’s Carnival events, access to the enclosure is free.
The Children’s Gala is scheduled at 6.30 pm on Sunday, 16 February, and boys and girls can compete with their striking outfits for the festivities’ little crown. The same day on which the Dog’s Carnival takes place at 12 pm, another favourite with families.
Big weekend
This is a taster for the big weekend of the celebrations, stretching from Friday 21 to Tuesday 25 February (Carnival Tuesday). Over that long weekend, the Family Carnival is scheduled in Triana (22 Saturday, 12 pm, once again in the historic city centre), the children’s murgas encounter (on Sunday 23 in Santa Catalina, at 11 am) and the children’s Cavalcade, a great event for the youngest audience, in a grand parade of costumes, groups and floats which leaves from León y Castillo Street, the city’s main street, heading for Santa Catalina Park, to round off the party in great style (also on Sunday 23, from 5 pm onwards).
Although there’s nothing to say that families can’t go to the Carnaval al Sol (Sun Carnival) at Las Canteras Beach on Saturday 22, a unique party parade alongside the beach, (starting at 5 pm) or experience the Daytime Carnival at Santa Catalina right in the middle of the holiday Tuesday (12 pm).
The end of the fiesta
The Once upon a time Carnival ends on Saturday 29 February, with a grand cavalcade which the youngest children can watch in its early stages, although later the celebrations turn into something more suitable for the grown-ups. And on 1 March, with the traditional Sardine’s Funeral, where the widows weep over the death of Carnival (Don Carnal), and which also leaves from León y Castillo Street at 7 pm, heading out to Las Canteras Beach, where the fantasy fish is set fire to, and the fireworks dazzle on the beach.
The red carpet that gives us a taste of Carnival
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 4 February, 2020. The newly redeveloped Avenida Mesa y López in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was the scene on Saturday 1 February of an advance taste of Once upon a time at Carnival, which is what the city’s 2020 massive fiesta is called. 64 contenders for crowns in the carnival celebrations paraded in front of 3,000 people at the presentation and the draw to find out the order in which they will take part in the different galas to be held in the Santa Catalina Park. This was an exciting taste of things to come in a Carnival which will have its official opening on 7 February, with the reading of the Opening Speech in Santa Ana Square (9 pm).
Dressed up for the occasion, the 14 contenders for Carnival Queen were a fine sight on the red carpet: their gala will be held on 21 February; likewise the 11 contenders for the junior throne (which will be decided on 16 February) and ten contenders for Grand Dame (gala programmed for 9 February). As well as the 29 Drag Queens who will compete in the Shortlisting on 22 February. The audience cheered each one of the contenders, who paraded on their platforms to find out when they had been drawn: big and small, because in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the drag queens are real icons of a completely inclusive Carnival.
Contenders of both sexes were applauded with real excitement in this act which took place out in the street, a sign that the audience is all set for a celebration which is dedicated this year to the world of tales and fables. All this was in front of the 2019 Queens and the Drag Queen, who were not going to miss the occasion. Once upon a time…at a Carnival full of princes and princesses seeking their crowns.
Take note, because the Carnival has already started, and the week which begins today, Monday, 3 February, will offer us, as well as the Opening Speech, the junior street band competition, a profusion of rhythm, glitter and colour to demonstrate that the grass roots of the Carnival is alive and well (Saturday 8, 7 pm); the festival of junior costumes, a family show where thousands of children in fancy dress take over the enclosure and applaud the competitors (Sunday 9, 11 am) and the Grand Dame Gala, the act which brings the first ruler of the fiestas to her throne, the queen of the senior citizens (Sunday 9, 8 pm). All the acts are accompanied by live music.
"Once upon a time at Carnival", the allegory of the fiesta in 2020
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 3 February, 2020. The 2020 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival runs from 7 February to 1 March, and will be presented with the introductory tag “Once upon a time…”, which is how most popular tales in universal literature begin.
The world of tales, be they children’s or adults’ tales, based on universal literature or television series which either deconstruct the mythical characters, such as the popular “Once upon a Time”, or invent new universes such as “The Handmaid’s Tale”, will bring colour, fun and an infinite number of possibilities both to fans of popular tales, the work of Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm or Perrault, and to fans of television sagas based on their tales.
Fantasy will no doubt become reality in the carnival costumes of those taking part, in the leit motiv of the shows, and in the great stage which towers over the Santa Catalina Park.
The stage design, by Sergio Macías, makes clear reference to a dozen popular tales, some of which appear in an allegorical fashion and others more circuitously. “Hansel and Gretel”, “Snow White”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Rapunzel”, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” or “Jack and the Beanstalk”, among others, are some of the titles which depict a carefully wrought group scene, with a great wealth of detail.
Above the central body of this staging, a giant magic mirror, inspired by the story of “Snow White”, will turn into a huge screen on which the Carnival characters will make their appearance.