The proclamation parade reminds the city that Carnival has started

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 5 February, 2025. Santa Catalina Park shows off the “Olympic Games” Carnival stage to locals and visitors, an imposing structure connecting the allegory of the past, the classic Games whose origin dates back to Greece and the temple of Zeus, and the modern Games, with a magnificent athletics track and a censer where the flame of Prometheus will light up the events featured on lpacarnaval.com

And it is exactly towards that stage that the first Carnival event will take us, with a proclamation parade which, on Saturday 8 February, at 8 pm, will leave from Calle Juan Rejón in the popular neighbourhood of La Isleta, continuing through Albareda until it ends up in the heart of Carnival. This parade will fill its route with rhythm and colour, with features that remind us that the party has started, a party that will be lively right through to 16 March, when it comes to an end with the Burial of the Sardine.

After the parade, from 9 pm onwards, the starring role is taken by the voice of a Carnival legend, Orlando Jiménez, the president of the veteran Murga group Los Nietos de Kika, a local group from the town of Arucas which, like all Murgas, questions current affairs and goes over them in a humorous tone. And to keep spirits up, there’ll be plenty of music. El Combo Dominicano band will be delivering all-time favourite sounds from the stage.

And a day later, this same Carnival nucleus will be the epicentre of fun and brazenness. Because, on Sunday, at 9.30 pm, the Adult Costume Competition starts, an event which has seven people competing in the individual category, and ten groups competing with costumes and choreographies worked out between friends.

This will be just the beginning of a Carnival which has so much in store. The second week will start off on 14 February, which is when St Valentine’s Day is celebrated. And the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Carnival will celebrate the day with one of the events that stirs up most passions and love: the Drag Queen Preselection, where 25 candidates dream of their great ticket to the Drag Queen Gala.

That second Carnival-goers’ encounter will devote Saturday 15 February to children, with the selection of the Junior Throne Queen. Although both boys and girls can compete, in 2025 it’s eight little girls who have signed up for the encounter. The Junior Throne brings all the little ones together in the enclosure. There’s no doubt that it’s a party designed for families to enjoy themselves together, and which guarantees the future of Carnival. Sunday 16 February is for families too: this Carnival doesn’t neglect its new blood, and on 16 February, from 6 pm onwards, the Junior Murgas, little groups of kids who begin their humorous questioning of the system, come out to give one hundred per cent on the Santa Catalina stage.