Barely have the Ayuntamientos (Town Halls) in Santa Cruz and Puerto de la Cruz taken down the Christmas lights than they’ve been back on their ladder trucks installing the carnival lights.
Aligned to Easter, Carnaval (Spanish spelling) is early this year and many of the run-up events have already started.
Visitors will find their evenings this week being impregnated with the sound of a-capella songs of interminable length and indeterminate tune accompanied by the occasional blast on toy trumpets.
Known as Murgas, these ornately costumed groups of clowns (groups can be 50 or more strong) belt out political satire in nightly competitions to determine the best. Singing to packed audiences of Canarios who apparently can’t get enough of this stuff, the appeal of the Murgas is a mystery to me. A novelty the first time I saw them, their attraction waned after roughly 20 minutes. Since then I’ve had 6 years of them filling the TV screen nightly for weeks before, during and after Carnaval. Someone told me that if you could understand what they were singing you’d think they were good; I disagree; I still find them slightly less entertaining than watching the traffic lights change. Still, each to their own and if you want to catch them you’ll find them appearing nightly all over the north of the island.
Next on the Carnaval agenda will be the election of the Carnaval Queens; a much more spectator-friendly event in my opinion.
I’m never entirely sure what the judging criteria is for these events; the girl, the costume or the combination of the two but in any case it makes for a fabulous spectacle. The scantily clad girls appear on stage one at a time, their goosebumps rapidly disappearing as they work up a (very feminine no doubt) sweat dragging their extraordinarily elaborate costumes to the front of the stage. Frequently they can’t manage to gather enough momentum to make the journey and have to be rescued by roadies who presumably have to undertake some sort of life-threatening knock-out competition to win a place on this gig.
The real hard core of Carnaval gets underway next weekend with the Opening Parades. Santa Cruz hold theirs on the Friday evening and Puerto’s is on Saturday evening.
For spectators, this consists of getting to a good spot at least half an hour before the procession is due to start and standing there for a couple of hours while endless diminutive Canarios push in front of you and then invite the other six members of their family to join them.
The parades are colourful, loud and exhilarating and if you’re not in the mood to slip into fancy costume, down a couple of measures of rum and salsa down the street at the end of it then maybe Carnaval isn’t for you.
Whatever else you do, please do not put your fingers in your ears and grimace as the drummers pass by; it’s annoying and downright rude.
After the parades it’s party, party, party every night until dawn and if you want to really understand what this stuff is all about, plunge headlong into the hedonism. On the other hand, if you’ve just booked a quiet, relaxing, away-from-it-all holiday anywhere near the centre of proceedings in Santa Cruz and Puerto de la Cruz”¦ try for a refund – quick.
Wednesday sees the Burial of the Sardine taking place. Thousands of “˜widows’ (most of them men) attired in black dresses, hats and veils with various naughty toys barely concealed in stocking tops and garters, follow a funeral cortège for a giant papier mâché sardine wearing red lipstick and false eyelashes. Did I mention that Carnaval was surreal?
The cortège ends with the sardine being set alight accompanied by a fantastic fireworks display.
The closing parades are on Tuesday in Santa Cruz (although the parties continue until Saturday) and on Sunday in Puerto de la Cruz.
Of course, after that there are still some parties and probably another month of Murgas on the TV.
When the main events have settle down, a mini version of Carnaval rolls out to the rest of the island, even to the south where you can catch events in Los Gigantes and Los Cristianos.
Get the full low-down on the history, events and 2010 timetable for Carnaval on Tenerife.
