Secret Tenerife: Tenerife Carnival Dates for 2006

Carnival 2006 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

This is, by no means, a complete list of all Carnaval events, but those which, I believe, to be of most interest to a visitor and generally casual onlooker.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 21:30 - Gala for the Selection of the Carnaval Queen 2006. This colourful event, to be held tonight in the Centro Internacional de Ferias y Congresos de Tenerife will be televised internationally. It is probably best seen on TV too, to see close ups of the costumes. This gala is really the last in a long line of selection processes that have already taken place to choose the best dance troops and musical groups, etc. These also set the order they should participate in the forthcoming parades.
Friday, February 24, 2006 - 20:00 - Opening Parade of Carnaval. Now that all the participants and winners have been chosen, this parade announces the start of Carnival celebrations proper. There is a firework display at the end of the parade.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 16:00 - "Coso" Apoteosis del Carnaval. This is THE Main parade of Carnaval, along the Avenida de Anaga and Avenida Marítima alongside the seafront and port in Santa Cruz. Fireworks again follow, scheduled for 21:00. This parade will also be televised internationally.
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 21:00 - Burial of the Sardine. How does one explain this? It is a sacrilegious, surreal and sarcastic parade where you are likely to find men and women dressed up as Catholic clergy and men dressed up in drag as "wailing widows". Just in case you think that you've run into a cross-dressers' convention or a Gay Pride march, it is not. They all follow the funeral procession of the poor unfortunate effigy of a huge sardine, which symbolizes the "death" or end of Carnaval (well, sort of) and start of Lent.
Saturday, March 4, 2006 - 18:00 - Coso Infantil. This is a parade for all the junior Carnaval participants, the Kid's Parade, in which the place of honour will be held by the Reina Infantil (Junior Queen).
Sunday, March 5, 2006 - 10:00 - XXXVI Concourse of Classic Cars. Look for the old crocks, in the Plaza de la Iglesia (Church Square) and Calle La Noria. They make a circuit of the city streets.

There is a Gran Fin de Fiesta del Carnaval 2006 party at 17:00 and, a firework display, slated to begin at 22:00. If the Burial of the Sardine didn't really mark the end of Carnaval, does this? Well, to repeat myself yet again, only sort of! All it really means is the end, for this year, of the Carnaval celebrations in Santa Cruz. It all just moves along to Puerto de La Cruz, Los Cristianos and every other town on the island for at least another couple of weeks. And, since there is always next year's Carnaval to plan, dances and songs to rehearse, costumes to have 1000's of sequins and feathers sewn on ... I really doubt that Carnaval ever ends.

Times, in the Canary Islands, are always very approximate, however, with the advent of televising most of the main events, they are getting more precise.

If you're planning to come to Santa Cruz Carnaval in a future year, you can always count on the main parade, being on the Shrove Tuesday. Once you have the calendar for the year in question, this should be easy to work out.

The creator of the poster for the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnaval 2006 is Karina Beltrán, an artist born in Buenavista in 1968. Karina obtained a degree in Fine Arts at the University of La Laguna in 1991 and a Postgraduate Diploma at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2001, where a year later, she also obtained her Master in Fine Arts. Karina currently lives and works in London.