Daytime Carnival beat all the records with 400,000 people in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The crowds in Santa Cruz on Saturday

Santa Cruz de Tenerife lived a Carnival Piñata this year that outdid all the forecasts. The second Daytime Carnival event on Saturday 9 March 2019 fused into the night time dances, with more than fifty performances in 18 uninterrupted hours of music and dance. The number of people in the carnival area was around 400,000 people, according to local police data. Between 7 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock in the afternoon, 18,332 more vehicles entered the city than the previous Saturday. This increase and the traffic jams at the entrance to Santa Cruz forced a redoubling of efforts to regulate traffic at the entrances to the capital. This became especially evident in the hours before the concert offered by the Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra, preceded by Cuban band Orishas.

The crowd ended up cramming the entire area between Avenida Francisco La Roche, the Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena and Plaza de España, as well as adjacent streets such as La Marina, Villalba Hervás and Emilio Calzadilla.

From midday, when the program of activities organized by the City Council began, the influx of people was constant around the stages installed in the squares of La Candelaria and Príncipe and the Avenue Francisco La Roche.

The numbers are twice that of the final Daytime Carnival last year and certainly beats the 250,000 people who attended the Celia Cruz concert for Carnival in Santa Cruz in 1987 that was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest gathering of people in an outdoor plaza to attend a concert.

Juan Luis Guerra Breaks Tenerife Carnival Attendance Record | El Carnaval de Santa Cruz desborda sus previsiones con una Piñata multitudinaria | El Carnaval de Día bate récords con 400.000 personas en Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Santa Cruz bate el récord de Celia Cruz

Carnival 2018 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Closes

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:

• 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

Indeed, a fantastic result. Can't wait for 2019!

Carnaval récord en Santa Cruz: más participación, menos incidencias

The clean up crew (Image Santa Cruz Town Hall)

Santa Cruz Carnival Grand Bang Fest

Batucada in Rio

Yesterday's Carnaval de Día (Daytime Carnaval) initiative for the final weekend of carnaval in Santa Cruz definitely started with a bang. Firstly with what they're calling a gran batucada. If you've ever given a toddler a toy drum you'll know exactly what this means, incessant drumming, only this time produced by whole groups of adults, rhythmically. It's make as much noise as possible time. But, as if that wasn't enough for you, this was followed by the incredibly noisy - imagine how it must have sounded live - fireworks-by-day spectacle coming from the Plaza de España, provided by Los Realejos' firm Hermanos Toste.

These noise fireworks are already famous in Valencia and the custom there was unlike any other, where they're called a mascletà or mascletada (bang fest). Michael Palin, in his Hemingway Adventure (video), calls them "a celebration of noise", a competition to make "a bigger, more beautiful din" and "the world eardrum splitting finals." Given the fuss made about carnaval's noise in recent years in Santa Cruz it is the absolute height of irony (maybe sarcasm) to introduce this 120dB+ spectacle. In Tenerife, they are calling this firework finger gesture a "gran traca." Don't you just love the typical anarchy?

Whoever planned this day's events and the order of service should be wholly congratulated. They clearly knew exactly what emotion they wanted to provoke, as it builds from the drumming, into the firework frenzy ... And bang Billos Caracas Boys launch into the classic, "Santa Cruz en Carnaval". That song has become a genuine carnaval hymn because Billos Caracas Boys had appeared with the late Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa, now Immortal Goddess, at Santa Cruz Carnival's Greatest Ever Moment in History: the Guinness World Record for the largest attendance at a dance; 250,000 people, back in 1987.

Over 120dB sure is a LOT of Santa Cruz en Carnaval loving emotion!

Santa Cruz en Carnaval Billos Caracas Boys 2008