After two years without being celebrated due to the pandemic, Santa Cruz de Tenerife will recover its emblematic magicians’ dance for the May Festivities in 2022. This has been confirmed by the mayor of the city, José Manuel Bermúdez, who stressed that “we want to produce normality in the realization of our festivities with the May Festivities”, even before Carnival, “recovering things that two years ago we did not they are celebrated, like the dance of magicians”.
A long-awaited appointment in the chicharrero calendar that takes place on the night of May 2 and that in this 2022 the City Council is going to recover “for the first time since the May 2019 Festivities, with the entire capacity that the streets of La Noria, Plaza de La Concepción and Nifú-Nifá street,” said Bermúdez.
Specifically, the mayor explained that “we are going to put around 800 or 900 tables, and the idea is to recover the magicians’ dance with the same number of people with which we did it before. I don’t know if we will have to wear masks or not, but we will be dressed, as we have always demanded, as magicians and magicians, and we will distribute ourselves at the tables.
In this sense, he stressed that the celebration of the magician’s dance “is going to be absolutely normal” and that, in principle, “we do not foresee any type of restriction” beyond the possible mask. “If in the fallas of Valencia the only restriction is the mask, and there is no other on the street, then the dance of magicians, which is also limited because we do not allow entering the venue if you do not go dressed as a magician or magician, we anticipate that can be celebrated as always”, he added.
Even so, the local councilor pointed out that “it may be that the tables have a maximum capacity of 12 people per table, which is what we now have in the hotel industry, or it may be that at that time the Government has withdrawn that restriction, but sure that at least there will be those 12 people per table”.
But the magician’s dance will not be the only thing that is recovered for the May Festivities of this 2022. Thus, another of the initiatives “that we are going to recover, and that has not been done since 2019, is the stage, which returns to its place traditional”, that is, “the main stage will be in the Plaza de la Candelaria, as it was done in May 2019”, said the mayor, where, in addition, “the election of the queen of the Fiestas de May”. And to all this we must add that the Exhibition of Flowers, Plants and Traditional Canarian Crafts will also return to its traditional location in the García Sanabria park in the capital.
Pandemic
With almost 130 years of history, the Fiestas de Mayo in Santa Cruz have never stopped being celebrated before. With different names, throughout this last century, the foundation of the capital had always been commemorated, but COVID forced the suspension of all its acts in 2020, replacing it with online contests of crosses or putting on the balconies.
Last 2021, even with the pandemic, the Capital City Council opted to recover the celebration of some of its acts, although in a format adapted to the protocols set by the health authorities. Thus, the Exhibition of Flowers, Plants and Traditional Canarian Crafts was moved to the Fairgrounds to comply with the restrictions and capacity control protocols; and a series of cultural events were organized, such as children’s performances of Gorgorito and musical concerts, which were held in the stable cultural space created by the City Council, and located in front of the Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena, on Paseo Teniente Francisco Grandi Giraud, with their corresponding contingency plans and protocols.
However, in this 2022 the intention of the City Council is “normality in the realization of our foundational parties”, highlighted the mayor. “The return to normality is going to take place with the May Festivities. For me it is a satisfaction, since I was the last mayor to celebrate normal May Festivities and I am going to be the first mayor to recover them again”, he emphasized.
