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| Daytime carnival crowd in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Image Santa Cruz Town Hall) |
With an estimated crowd of 200,000 people during the Daytime Carnival event of the final weekend of carnival 2018 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the organisers are calling it a record day that serves as a reminder of that famous Guinness record breaking attendance: "In 1987, singer Celia Cruz went to the Carnival Chicharrero with Billo's Caracas Boys; attended by 250,000 people, the concert was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest gathering of people in an outdoor plaza to attend a concert. [Source]"
The Gala for the Selection of the Carnival Queen on Wednesday, 7th February was watched by 4.5 million viewers via the two Spanish and Canarian television channels, more than in previous years. This number was 'across the country', so that may not even include international and online viewers.
During the last night of the fiestas there was another decrease in the activity of the carnival field hospital, where just 88 patients were seen for various reasons, the most frequent being the excessive consumption of alcohol (in 23 cases, 10 of whom were minors). Last year on the equivalent night, 136 people had been treated. The most serious case was a male, found unconscious in the street with head and chest injuries. He was taken to the Hospital de la Candelaria and is in a critical state. The first aid post in the Plaza de España, run by volunteers, attended to 20 people with minor injuries. During the Daytime Carnival, just 55 people required treatment for minor ailments and for the effects of the excessive consumption of alcohol. Seven only required hospital treatment or x-rays.
Another nugget of data is that more than a million LED light bulbs had been installed in Santa Cruz as decorative carnival lighting. The Town Hall hopes this will produce savings of €10,000 over the use of traditional bulbs.
Today, the clean up operation began in Tenerife's capital, where council workers had already collected 241 tons of rubbish in the second third of carnival and used 1.6 million litres of treated water and 2,160 litres of cleaning products.
Meanwhile, in Puerto de la Cruz, some 30,000 spectators turned up to watch 441 blokes in drag in the annual Mascarita Ponte Tacón on Friday night and another 25,000 turned out to watch the climax of their carnival, the Main Carnival parade, which had started at 6pm this year, two hours later than is customary.
At a press conference this week in Santa Cruz, some more data has been released about the carnival that just closed in the city, which they are calling a record carnival with more participation and less incidents.
Here's a quick list of what we discovered:
Carnaval récord en Santa Cruz: más participación, menos incidencias
- More that a million people attended carnival in the streets of Santa Cruz
- 100,000 people took part in the various contests and parades
- There was a 14% increase in demand for the 600,000 public transport services
- 528 tons of rubbish were collected during the 10 days
- There were less incidents at the carnival campaign hospital - 620 cases, 11% less than 2017
- 152,000 cruise passengers made a stop in Santa Cruz during carnival and spent a total of seven million euros between them, 15% more than in 2017
- Hotels registered record occupation reaching 95% at the weekends and 80% during the week
- On Shrove Tuesday, the day of the main parade, 11,000 tourists arrived in Santa Cruz in 200 coaches, spent 450,000 euros and bought all 1,600 seats in the stands. (Reports are one tour operator wants all of them in 2019.)
- Business sponsorship increased almost 100% to reach 600,000 Euros
- 12 million people visited the Santa Cruz carnival website
- Almost 11 million people followed carnival on Facebook
- Seats sold out for the Final of the Murga contests, the Carnival Queen Gala and other contests
- 50 million viewers watched something of the carnival on televison
Carnaval récord en Santa Cruz: más participación, menos incidencias
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| The clean up crew (Image Santa Cruz Town Hall) |
