“Carnival is a feeling and, therefore, what the lack of Carnival produces is a feeling of nostalgia, of wanting to enjoy it again…”. This is how the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, expressed himself yesterday on a Monday that should have been Carnival, but was one more, full of that feeling of longing, but one more.
The municipal councilor went to the TEA library to visit an exhibition that these days can help mitigate some of the magua for a party that this week should be filling the streets with people in disguise, but also with murgas on the corners, the Plaza del Príncipe and, of course, music in any corner of the city.
Yesterday, the mayor lamented that in Santa Cruz the Carnival cannot be celebrated normally, while in other parts of the national territory they are. “Nobody understands how in the rest of Spain the Fallas are being celebrated without restrictions, some Carnivals without restrictions and in the Canary Islands we cannot do it in the street, that is something that nobody understands. The first is me, ”he pointed out. And it is enough to take a walk on the internet to see how in different parts of the Peninsula street events are held with the sole premise of wearing a mask.
Bermúdez said he hopes that this contradiction “will be resolved in favor of the Carnival in the street in June. If the decision we made to delay it gives us the opportunity to do it on the street, well, that’s welcome.” “What is not possible -he continued- is that the COVID restrictions are applied in one way in Andalusia and in another in Madrid, or the Canary Islands. You have to deal with it the same way everywhere.”
The alderman is optimistic about June: “If things like that can be done now, massively on the street, then I imagine that in June much more will be possible, with which there are many options that in June there will be a Carnival in the Street”.
Those options, he advanced, go through celebrating one or two weekends, something that is yet to be decided. “You have to value it well. There are different proposals from a technical point of view, because we have to take into account that we are not going to have a festive Tuesday of Carnival, which would have to be seen if we take advantage of, for example, Saint John’s Day to do something, we have to see what we can do. My option is that if we do something that takes as much advantage as possible ”he concluded.
Meanwhile, on the street, some carnival people resisted that this Monday was not one of Carnival, so with a wig and costume (and mask) they went to the public highway.
While that date arrives, the groups continue trying to maintain the illusion for a Carnival in June, enduring the pull of seeing the big week pass without the usual celebrations. The murga dean of the Carnival, the Ni fú Ni fá, confirmed that feeling of desolation that the mayor was talking about. “A Monday of Carnival without Carnival, a Tuesday without a bullring and an Ash Wednesday without a sardine, is a lot to not feel disappointed, unmotivated and almost without enthusiasm, I would say,” recognized its president Cristóbal Reyes. “Last year we couldn’t celebrate our 60th anniversary, and this year, when we already had everything ready to at least celebrate 60 + 1, everything was canceled again,” he added.
However, the prompt activation of rehearsals and performances, which have already been confirmed in other municipalities, acknowledges Reyes, serves to recover a little spirits and focus towards June. “We are excited about the invitation from Los Realejos to the proclamation of their Carnival, to break the ice”, added the president of the FuFa.
