Carnival crowns its Queen and presents its poker hand of four Queens, the Ladies in Waiting of a court celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gran Canaria capital’s Carnival celebrations: the herald of the biggest week, which includes the experience of Carnival Tuesday
Families can take part in a variety of family days: the daytime celebration will fill the Carnival enclosure in the morning and afternoon of Saturday 14, the celebration dedicated to little ones will take place on Sunday morning in the Feria Square, the one designed for older members of the public is on the same day in Pilar Square, and the great Carnival Tuesday floods the area around Santa Catalina.
Body painting, an international competition based on this ephemeral art, will bring surprises to its devotees on Sunday night
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tuesday 3 February, 2026. The week has come when they choose the Queen and the group of Ladies in Waiting who will accompany the monarch in her parades and acts. This will be on Friday, 13 February, at the end of a gala which will see 13 contenders parading on the catwalk in their spectacular costumes. The designs worn by the Queens in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are not just costumes or outfits inspired by a theme, they are huge structures that reproduce dream worlds and eclipse the audience with their brilliance, feathers, beading, colour, elegance and the savoir faire of those who bear them, the candidates.
A huge week for Carnival
Without a doubt, this is a huge week for Carnival; it’s over half way through, it coincides with Carnival Tuesday (a local holiday), and the street parties begin: the parades which bring together groups and fans, the Queens Elect of the Children’s, Adult’s and Veteran’s categories and their Courts, in this case. There will also be the 12 Drag Queens who have made it to the final, and who will be judged in the Drag Queen Gala on 20 February, as well as the Children’s Parade which is scheduled for the morning of Tuesday 17 February.
Carnival Nights, Children’s Carnival and Senior Carnival
Other types of encounters will take over the spaces allocated to this great event: the stage at Santa Catalina Square, the stage in the area behind, the recently designated stage in Manuel Becerra Square and the one on Poeta Agustín Millares Sall Street; these last two are zones which will be particularly vibrant in the night-time revelries on 13 and 14 February; but there are also new locations which will join in on the fun on Sunday 15 to celebrate a Children’s Carnival with all the family in the Plaza de la Feria Square, and a Senior Carnival, that same day, but in Plaza del Pilar Square, in the popular Guanarteme neighbourhood.
Body Painting Contest
Late on Sunday 15, the Carnival enclosure will throb with the excitement of the Body Painting Contest, human canvases clothed in talent, hours of work and creativity. Amazing too is the patience of the models who will then show off the artistic talents of the make-up artists through movement, dance and choreographies which they will perform with little dancing troupes.
Carnival Tuesday
Bearing in mind that the city comes to a halt on 17 February with Carnival Tuesday, activity related to the festivities will be at boiling point everywhere and will once more invite everyone to nights of rhythm: on the night of February 16, the eve of Carnival Tuesday, at the designated spaces, and on the great Tuesday which brings little boys and girls out onto the streets in the company of their families for the Children’s Parade, and for a day of music in their Daytime Carnival in Santa Catalina.
The organisers remind you to keep an eye on the lpacarnaval.com schedule, both in its Spanish version and the English one, where information will be posted about the details of every event on each version’s home page.