The tremendous night of dancing on Friday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife ended and, while the most late-nighters went home to sleep, the cleaning crews worked at the wrong time to prepare the city for the long-awaited Day Carnival from yesterday Saturday. The carnival party would end up tying with Don Carnal’s farewell night, giving meaning to the phrase that dictates that in the capital of Tenerife “the streets dance by day and by night”, in this edition that the chicharrera party dedicated to New York, the city that never sleeps, like Santa Cruz in Carnival.
It was 12:00 noon this Saturday when the roar of Carnival beat again in Santa Cruz to the rhythm of batucadas, which were deployed in the capital to receive the most fanatics of the day party, a modality that is gaining popularity and followers year after year.
The characteristic drums and the passage of the comparsas opened their mouths and infected the thousands of partygoers who began to occupy the streets to enjoy the massive dances programmed by the Santa Cruz City Council, starring, among other artists, the K-Narias, King Africa , David Civera, Tony Tun Tun, La India, Coyote Dax, Óscar de León, Melody, Jadel or Dasoul. The festive and family atmosphere of the Daytime Carnival prevailed throughout the day, which was gaining participants with the passing of the hours.
The performances promoted by the Department of Fiestas made thousands of people enjoy themselves under the watchful eye of the sun, while the murgas, among other carnival groups, were improvising street scenes to offer their performances at key points in the city, such as La Calle Noria, Cortefiel -on Calle Castillo- and the stairs of the Guimerá Theater. At 3:00 p.m. there was no room for a pin in the Plaza de La Candelaria and its surroundings, but the same thing happened in other central enclaves, such as the Plaza del Príncipe.
sun and fun
Fortunately, the weather forecasts failed, announcing the probability of occasional showers, and the good weather continued throughout the day. The crowds, although numerous, allowed people to dance and joke around without feeling overwhelmed. At 5:00 p.m., La India managed to gather a large part of the partygoers on Francisco La Roche Avenue to sing her greatest hits with her. Already at 6:00 p.m., Bambones and Diablos Locos met again, as they did last year, on the stairs of the Guimerá Theater, this time accompanied by Triquikonas, in which it was their first performance since 2020, at which time stopped due to COVID-19.
The dances, humor and fun continued until the wee hours of the morning in what was the best culmination for the Carnival of the return. Now, it’s time to prepare the next edition, which will once again transform Santa Cruz into the city that never sleeps in Carnival.