The emblematic festivities of San Benito they return this year to the streets and without restrictions. The Municipality of La Laguna yesterday presented the program of events, which starts this Thursday with the reading of the proclamation, by the soprano Candelaria González, and in which it has opted to recover the environment of the neighborhood square. In addition, due to the success of the reservation of the tables of the magicians’ ball, the possibility of setting up another 50 more is being studied.
These were some of the details that the mayor, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, and the Councilor for Fiestas, Badel Albelo, revealed yesterday in an act that had to be moved to the Leal Theater due to the rain, since it was initially planned in the Plaza de San Benito , and also had the participation of the person in charge of designing and editing the program-book, Julio Torres, and the secretary of the Tenerife Breeders’ Association, Santiago Cacho.
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez highlighted that La Laguna recovers its patron saint festivities after “two years waiting” and described the elaborated program as “majestic”. In addition, he stressed that “there are many residents of the San Benito environment who want the festivities to return to their place of origin, and it is an obligation on the part of those of us who are in charge of the Administration to assert those claims.”
In this regard, Albelo stated that “we are recovering that scenario in the neighborhood, that attachment to the environment of the church was a task that we set ourselves from the beginning and we believe that it has been achieved.” And, after two years of the pandemic, he valued that “we recovered our spaces of coexistence”, with the return of parties to the street.
Meanwhile, Julio Torres expressed his pride in being able to prepare the program, which includes the proclamations of 2020 and 2021, 30 old unpublished photographs, historical contributions and a review of the 75-year history of the pilgrimage, “since the one they took and the neighbors paid for it and that it was very humble” in 1947, and that it was a novelty for the city. For his part, Santiago Cacho valued the celebration of the XLIII Livestock Fair between the 15th and 17th.
acts
The Councilor for Festivities broke down some of the most important acts of the program, which starts this Thursday with the reading of the proclamation of the festivities by the soprano Candelaria González, at 6:30 p.m. at the Teatro Leal.
Meanwhile, the election gala for the Children’s and Adults’ Romera will be on July 1, and that of the Festival’s Major Romera, on the 2nd, and yesterday an act of presentation of the candidates already took place. Next, on the 5th, the IV Pedro Molina Memorial will take place, with a recognition of traditional trades and a tribute to Pepe Rojas; on the 6th, the XXXIV Gala for the Exaltation of Canarian Women; on July 7, the offering of food in the Plaza de San Benito; and on the 9th, the Eight Islands festival, among other events.
The big days will be July 8, with the celebration of the magicians’ ball, which has already exhausted its 450 table reservations, which is why Albelo announced that it is studying, with the editors of the security plan, the possibility of enabling 50 more tables, which would be located on Marqués de Celada street in the direction of San Benito. In addition, that night there will be folk performances in the surroundings of La Concepción and a popular festival in the Plaza de San Benito.
Meanwhile, on the 10th there will be the emblematic pilgrimage, which this year changes its route, leaving at noon from the hermitage of San Benito towards Calle Marqués de Celada, Plaza Doctor Olivera, and Calle Herradores, Viana, Obispo Rey Redondo and Advance, returning through Marqués de Celada to the starting point. That day there will also be a popular festival in the neighborhood square.
As a novelty, on Sunday the 17th, the eighth of the Pilgrimage, the image of San Benito will come out in an extraordinary procession, visiting the San Diego neighborhood and the Livestock Fair, where the cattle will be blessed. The entourage will be accompanied by ceremonial dances, the drumbeat of the tajaraste, and a boat.
