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.