Sábado de Carnaval parade of comparsas |
Whilst I've always been aware that there are various components that make up the mass of colour that is carnaval, I don't think I'd realised quite how many different types are involved;
- There are three types of carnival queen; Junior, Senior and Adult.
- There are the Junior and Adult Murga groups
- There are the Musical Groups
- Coreographed Groups
- Comedy Song groups
- Comparsas
- Rondallas
And those are just the ones from the long list of contests in the run up to carnival hitting the street. So many other things form part of carnaval too, including the carnival floats, decorated cars, the personalites, fireworks displays, vintage and classic cars, all of the performing artists, the funfair, food and drink kiosks and of course, the many thousands of members of the public who turn up night after night in costume. Over the course of carnival, I'll try to bring you something of all of them.
Most Santa Cruz carnival events are televised via RTVE or RTVC, locally, nationally and internationally or recordings may be found on the CarnavalTVC Youtube channel.