The festive atmosphere is already evident in the Town of La Orotava, and every day more neighbours and visitors are approaching the Town Hall square to admire the work of the master carpet weavers in the grand tapestry made with natural sands from the Teide National Park. The various events of the program are progressing gradually, but the Big Week is approaching, so in recent days the Local Security Committee meeting was held, chaired by the mayor, Francisco Linares, and attended by representatives of different security and emergency services: Local Police, Civil Guard, Canarian Police, Civil Protection and Red Cross.
The security operation for the Town’s Patron Festivities, marked this year by the mandatory date change in some events due to the European elections, has already been presented. For this reason, everything will progress exactly the same as always until June 6, the day of the Octave of Corpus Christi, and the weekend dedicated more to folkloric events – the traditional dance, livestock fair, saints’ procession and the popular pilgrimage – will be moved to the following weekend, from June 14th to 16th.
Linares highlighted the “exemplary work” of the security team in previous editions, as well as the good behaviour, in general, of residents and visitors, despite the thousands of people who come to the Town in these days. Data from previous years confirm that “we enjoy safe and quiet festivities”, as also confirmed by the Government Subdelegate, Javier Plata. However, it is agreed that we must not let our guard down, and therefore “we continue to work in coordination, something fundamental, to ensure the celebration of safe festivities where healthy fun is the main protagonist in a setting of tradition and religiousness as only La Orotava can recreate in its streets”, added Linares.
The person in charge of presenting the operation was the councillor for Security and Emergencies, Narciso Pérez, who thanked the previous work carried out over weeks by representatives of all the intervening bodies to configure an operation that consists of over 200 individuals “so that we can all have fun and enjoy the festivals”.
Pérez highlighted the presence of different special units. There will be officers from the Local Police, Civil Guard and the Canarian Police, “the latter force will significantly reinforce its presence compared to previous editions,” he pointed out. The “large contingent of officers” will be reinforced on the day of the carpets, during the Octave of Corpus Christi, the traditional dance, livestock fair, saints’ procession and pilgrimage.
“Prevention is one of the main pillars of this operation, which will be deployed thanks to the joint work of different traffic units, public security, child support groups, as well as canine units for the detection of drugs and explosives,” reports the press release from the Town Hall.
Red Cross Deployment
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On the health side, the Town Hall once again chooses Red Cross as the entity that will set up an “extensive operation”, present at all events and which for the major events, such as the traditional dance and pilgrimage, will have a field hospital to deal with incidents on site, at the Doña Chana Cultural Park facilities. This health operation is complemented by the Local Civil Protection Group, which will have all its personnel at the different events, as well as the support of other groups at the most crowded events.
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“For this entire enormous operation to work, coordination is essential,” states the Town Hall press release. There is work that has started months ago and will have ongoing monitoring from the Municipal Coordination Centre Cecopal, where all incidents occurring at the different events will be addressed.
