A dizzying parade with 9,000 participants opens the days of street parties that, until Piñata Sunday, 26 February, make Santa Cruz "the city that never sleeps".
With the Carnival parade last night, New York arrived in the streets of Santa Cruz, with its lights and shadows. Not even the yellow taxis of the Big Apple, accustomed to traffic jams, would have dared yesterday to approach the traffic jam that was experienced at the beginning of the parade, located on Avenida de Belgica.
There, the carnival groups waited impatiently to begin the parade that last night welcomed to the streets the party that the city has been waiting so long to host. The rain surrendered to the street carnival, after threatening all morning to suspend it, something that was finally not necessary. Only at the beginning of the parade, and also at the end, could the umbrellas be seen, which were soon put away to enjoy the groups, floats and queens, who waited for the start of the parade.
This year, the route had novelties, in that, while the queens, their court of honour and the groups left from the usual location, the decorated cars and floats did so - without the delay caused by the rest of the parade - from the Galcerán bridge.
Then the drums of the
NiFú-Nifá began to sound and the magic of the most important party in the Canary Islands flooded the streets of the Tenerife capital. With the pioneering murga at the head, the procession began to walk the streets under the watchful eye of thousands of people, who not even the rain demobilized.
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| Carnival Queen, Adriana Peña Fumero, at the Carnival Opening Parade 2023 |
Behind her were Los Cariocas, second in Comparsas Interpretation; the winners of the costume contest; Trapaseros, winners of the first prize for Interpretation of murgas; the winning musical group, Caña Dulce, followed by the rest of the winning groups, who took turns with the Queen's court of honour.
Pirates, sailors, clowns, tribes, carnival characters and even soldiers were mixed in a unique parade, which the public received with applause and cheers, honouring the work that carnival groups and designers have prepared. The applause was only overshadowed by the batucadas, who recalled that this party will be even bigger in this edition due to the immense desire to enjoy normality.
It was 9:00 p.m. and the award-winning groups had not finished leaving Avenida de Bélgica when Burlonas arrived, one of the few female murgas who have won an Interpretation award, an achievement that the public recognized with applause.
The more than 9,000 people who participated in this massive procession showed that carnival is more alive than ever and that Santa Cruz, once again, robbed New York of the title of being the city that never sleeps, for a week.
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| New York Yellow Cabs at Carnival Opening Parade in Santa Cruz 2023 |
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