Music sounds in Tabaiba. It is still 8:30 p.m. and this coastal town of El Rosario is warming up for the night of San Juan. A sardine, people in the street, bathing in the Charco already with the last lights of the day… The desire for summer, for parties, for verbena is felt in the atmosphere. And it was just the prelude. The festive climax was scheduled to start at 11:00 p.m. with the procession of the saint, the traditional lighting of the floating bonfire by divers from the El Pejín Club and a fireworks display.
Tabaiba was one of the few points in Tenerife that were able to fully enjoy the shortest night of the year. For the rest, the prohibitions put an end to this appointment. Nothing to do with the 80s and 90s, when numerous bonfires were held in every neighborhood and in rural areas, and not even with the most recent stage, in which ever greater limitations have been applied to the previous custom but in the that all kinds of festivities had been held along the coast around the fire.
Not even the already traditional concert in Puerto de la Cruz could be held, which over the years has become the most massive event on the night of San Juan on the Island. And it happens that Tenerife This day lacks an appointment as official and prominent as in the case of Gran Canaria occurs with the one on Las Canteras beach, coinciding with the founding festivities of the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Even the bishop went to Tabaiba
“Tonight two or three people will go to Tabaiba, at most,” the well-known humorous Twitter profile @dandochola published yesterday. It was ironic: the phrase was put in the mouth of Fernando Simón. And it is that, already before the party, it was presumed that this coastal nucleus of El Rosario was going to have a very high influx. It went up to the bishop, you could say. And it is that Bernardo Álvarez was also there to bless the chapel of the cave of San Juan. The festivities started around 7:00 p.m., and performances by Yaiza Cruz, DJ Goldyazz and the Reve group were scheduled to join the popular floating bonfire. The neuralgic point of the party was the surroundings of the maritime avenue and the Charco de Tabaiba. Shortly before 5:00 p.m., the mayor of El Rosario, Escolástico Gil, made a publication on social networks with a video of the moment in which the support for the bonfire was introduced into the sea. «The raft is already in the sea; Tabaiba, magical night », he wrote. It was, specifically, an iron base, with elements that prevent its collapse, and some pallets on top. The support, in turn, prevented the ashes from ending up in the sea. “This is quite an event,” Gil highlighted around 8:30 p.m. about this appointment, of which he recalled that it has already reached its XXII edition. Likewise, he highlighted the operation of the Local Police deployed both on the coast and in the upper area of the municipality. The events will continue today, Saint John’s Day, with the children’s foam party and different activities and games for the little ones, organized by the Alternating Training Plan with the Employment (PFAE) Activate El Rosario II.
Two bonfires in Granadilla
It was another of the key places on the night of San Juan in Tenerife. The forecast was that at 8:00 p.m. the activities would begin with parades on the promenade, from Playa Chica to the central square of El Médano, in charge of the troupes and batucadas Kuliquitacas del Sur and Guajeiros, the same as in Los Abrigos. The list of acts on the occasion of San Juan included the music of DJ Fabrizio and the Escuela de Calor group until midnight. Two bonfires (one on the central beach of El Médano, where Civil Protection had to wait, and another on Playa Grande de Los Abrigos) made up the atavistic component of this celebration. “The rest of the fire pits are totally prohibited in the bathing areas of the municipality,” the Granada City Council had warned, which also indicated days ago that there would be a container for the collection of ashes, which will guarantee the perfect condition of the beaches. The influx returned to register data prior to the pandemic.
Maria Jimenez rebels
Also in Santa Cruz, and more than the bonfires, the protagonists were the restrictions. All eyes were on María Jiménez, the focus of controversy in recent times. Specifically, on June 15, eight days before the night of San Juan, residents of the Dos Barrancos area expressed their indignation because early in the morning they saw crews from the Santa Cruz cleaning company proceeding to remove the materials that the children had already collected in the riverbed to make bonfires. They responded by setting fire to the accumulated material, anticipating the festival of San Juan, to the applause of those present. And, in that climate of tension, what happened yesterday? The children once again starred in the emergency collection to form their bonfires on the ashes where the three altars were burned on the 15th. “María Jiménez resists the destruction of traditions,” said a historic neighborhood leader proudly, to despite the fact that from the early hours of the afternoon the Local Police went to the area to warn that bonfires were not allowed, according to the order issued by the Environment area of the Cabildo.
Where are there bonfires in Santa Cruz?
Unlike other years, the Local Police did not receive warning calls for the bonfires, but dozens of neighbors went to claim information on where to go to see the bonfires.
And it is that the prohibitions took their toll on the bonfires: from the 80 years ago to the 35 that were set up this Friday, constituting the Southwest District in the capital of bonfires in Santa Cruz, with the permission of María Jiménez.
The Local Police, which mobilized some thirty agents and commanders for this operation, supervised some twenty, to which were added some fifteen who quickly and ran at the last minute to comply with tradition.
Among those officially registered in the registry opened by the Security area, in the Southwest a dozen were installed in the streets of El Guincho with Jable; Noreiba, Abeto and Loas; Bimbache, Pestiño, Ciprés, Azahar, Nuez, Autodate, El Quinceh, Simún and on the road to Saint Mary of the Seaat the height of the bus stop.
Among the classic altars of San Juan, the families that crowded into Pestiño street; or on the road to Punta Anaga, to El Draguillo… And called to capitalize on the festivity of the bonfires, Acorán.
This nucleus of the Southwest was born as a dormitory neighborhood and over the years it has fed the feeling of town since a neighborhood association was established in 2020. From there, the councilor for the Southwest, Javier Rivero, provided support in the first celebration so that the residents had chairs, tables and even a folkloric group, an atmosphere that was recreated this edition with music due to the haste to contract for the coincidence of the constitution of the new city council after the last electoral appointment.
Even so, Acorán started the countdown last night to convert this nucleus as a reference in the festival of San Juan not only in the Southwest but in all of Santa Cruz. By 2024, the first edition will be held with the same entity as the patronal festival of any other area of the place to celebrate: San Juan de Acorán.
Faced with this boom in the Southwest, the festivities that were once held in the Las Teresitas beach they went down in history, as far as yesterday was reached without any traffic mishap, an enclave orphaned yesterday of tradition, as happened in other enclaves of the capital of Tenerife where San Juan was relegated to oblivion.
Bonfires but no concert
Other points of the Tenerife geography also had bonfires, although without great excesses. In Puerto de la Cruz they were left with honey on their lips by not having their traditional concert held, but there were bonfires on the beach. For today another year is planned in the surroundings of the fishing pier the tradition of the Bath of Goats in the Sea, organized by the Association of Friends of the Bath of Goats in the Sea and that together with the City Council celebrates one of the hallmarks of the municipality that goes back almost a century, as reported by the City Council of Porto in the days prior to these deep-rooted acts.