Something for the weekend: Concurso de Comparsas Ritmo y Armonía

It's all about celebrating the biggest event of the year in Tenerife this weekend - Carnival in Santa Cruz - with various performances taking place all over the city - in the Plazas del Príncipe and La Candelaria, Parque García Sanabria and Avenida Francisco La Roche - from 5:30 pm on Saturday, February 6th. Later, from 9pm on Saturday night, is the Concurso de Comparsas Ritmo y Armonía (Rhythm and Harmony Comparsas) a gathering and procession of all of the comparsa groups - a comparsa is a group of singers, musicians and dancers that take part in carnivals and other festivities in Spain and Latin America - along the Avenida Francisco La Roche. This is being televised from 10 pm.

Here's a video from last year Ritmo y Armonía S/C Tenerife 2015, from which you'll see that the parade also includes the carnival queen and her court, so it'll be a great Saturday night out and opportunity to see all the most colourful elements of carnival.

Of course, there will also be loads of street food and the fun fair, as well as music and dancing in the streets and squares, with the biggest orchestras in the Plazas del Príncipe and La Candelaria and the Avenida Francisco La Roche.



On Sunday, February 7th, is the first of the days of Carnaval de Día (Daytime Carnival,or Carnival Alldayer, perhaps) with all sorts of activities and music going on, again in the main streets and squares in the city, from 1 pm until 6:30 pm.

If you're going to carnival, it's worth knowing that the Tenerife bus company, TITSA, have increased their services by 600% for the nights of carnival. The special carnival services are running between today, Friday, February 5th and Sunday, February 14th. At the following page, you can download timetables with the additional night services and also the additional daytime services running during the Carnaval de Día and on Carnival Tuesday, February 9th; the day of Carnival's main parade. (Spanish only.)

And while we're on celebrations, I thought I'd mention that today is Secret Tenerife's blogiversary our first post having been 12 years ago today, on February 5th, 2004. Coincidentally, although probably not surprisingly, the second item we covered was when the then Carnaval Takes To The Streets ...