A carnival in the Canaries: Forget Rio de Janeiro, Gran Canaria is the place for a flamboyant pre-Lent party in 2017
- Very few tourists consider the Canary Islands for a dose of February Mardi Gras
- But Gran Canaria, the third largest of the Spanish isles, has a carnival culture
- Its capital city Las Palmas reverberates to drums and dancing every February
On Canteras Beach in Las Palmas, capital of Gran Canaria, a bizarre funeral is taking place. Women dressed in widow’s weeds are wailing in Oscar-worthy displays of grief. They are crying about the death of a sardine.
And that’s not the only strange thing about this procession, with trumpeters playing the Eighties rock classic The Final Countdown as a jazzy funeral dirge.
This event marks the end of four weeks of festivities in LasPalmas, when, as in many parts of Spain and South America, an effigy of the fish is burnt to represent the end of Carnival and the beginning of Lent.
Colours and shapes: The island of Gran Canaria is a less-known option for Carnival
The capital comes alive: Las Palmas is a city of sometimes unappreciated style and culture
Woof: Even the dogs get dressed for carnival
In Britain we have Pancake Day to use up the fat that is banned during the Lenten fast, but in the Hispanic world, they go in for Bacchanalian merry-making.
The theme for this year is Eternal Spring, celebrating the city’s benign climate, where the temperature rarely falls below 20c.
The tradition of carnival in the Canaries can be traced back to 1556 when Venetian merchants brought masked parties to the island. Everyone is encouraged to dress up, even those only watching the numerous floats parading through the city.
This year they are channelling Flower Power, encouraging people to don bellbottoms, John Lennon glasses, kaftans and do the hippy, hippy shake.
Carnival is from this Friday until March 5, but the highlights are concentrated in the last two weekends. Most events are free, but the gala to find the Carnival Queen is the hot ticket, with extravagant costumes reflecting the island’s strong connections to South America and the Caribbean.
Join the crowd: Costumed revellers process through the streets of Las Palmas every February
The Queen of the Carnival’s nemesis is the equally popular Drag Queen Gala, where the island’s menfolk strut their stuff in outrageous, barely there outfits.
It all ends on March 5 with the burying of the sardine and a fireworks display. The party’s over … or is it?
Those cunning Canarians stagger the carnivals in the other towns so that as Las Palmas’s festival closes, the fun starts in the south of the island in Maspalomas. So you can take a deep breath and go for it all over again.