Fiesta nights
The area around Santa Catalina (at the rear of the Park) will hold its fiesta nights with concerts, starting at 10.30 pm at night. They’ll be on Friday 1 March (with performances from local groups), Saturday 2 (with more music and a unique Cock fight – Freestyle Rap) and Monday 4 (Carnival Monday, which includes a performance from a Queen tribute group). These are nights of fun out in the street, in amongst the crowd and the fancy dress.
Nights that also follow on from the great Carnival Galas: the Gala to select the Carnival Queen (Friday 1, at 9 pm) and the internationally famous Preselection Gala and the Drag Queen Gala (Saturday 2 and Monday 4, at 9 pm). The tickets offered by the organising committee for these events are already sold out, although the area around the events, at Santa Catalina, is always very lively.
Celebrations in the classic city
As well as this, the old city resumes the fiesta on Saturday 2, with a daytime celebration in Triana’s Calle Mayor (a leading commercial area) and the Traditional Carnival on the night of Monday 4 (where everyone dresses in white and throws talcum powder at each other in recollection of the Indianos, emigrants who made their fortunes in America before returning home, in a party which the Casa de La Palma started to organise as a tribute to the great traditional celebration which takes place on that island every year.)
Santa Catalina, in the daytime
The Park, the heart of the Carnival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, doesn’t go quiet during the day. There will be celebrations in the sunlight on Saturday 2 March from 12 pm onwards (at 5 pm, Las Canteras will also have a little sample of the Carnival on that same day), on Sunday 3 March and on Carnival Tuesday, 4 March, with Carlinhos Brown in concert (free entry).
The Children’s Parade
Finally, on Carnival Tuesday again, the great children’s parade features on the programme, winding its way from the Castillo de La Luz (the city’s old fortress defending it from pirate attacks) to Santa Catalina. Groups of children and prizewinners from the Children’s Carnival take part … and a crowd full of families with large numbers of children in fancy dress. This will be from 5 pm onwards, and at 7 pm the Park will be the venue for a grand fiesta for the little ones.
How to get around
The city offers an extensive public transport network with the Guaguas Municipales bus company, which covers journeys between the two ends of the city, Vegueta and the Port (the area in which Santa Catalina is located), with routes that include 12, 17 and 1; visitors can pay the driver directly, at a fare of €1.40, or buy a bus pass (bono de guagua) at newsagents or at the Guaguas Municipales points of sale in the Santa Catalina Park and the Pérez Galdós Theatre area. You can also get around by bike, with the public bicycle hire service, Sitycleta. Or by taxi. In addition, visitors can take a tour on the City Sightseeing bus, with its main stop in Santa Catalina.
Where to eat
Both Vegueta and the Santa Catalina and Las Canteras area are full of eating places frequented by the locals. On festival nights the Carnival refreshment stands provide quicker solutions. Bear in mind that in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as an urban destination, there do not tend to be places specifically for tourists: the natives mix freely with visitors in bars and restaurants.