The City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, through the Autonomous Organization of Festivals and Recreational Activities (OAFAR), has presented this Monday the stage that will host the competitions and galas of Carnival 2024 at the Tenerife Fairgrounds starting next January 18 , when the first phase of the Children’s Murgas contest starts.
With the world of Television as a plot thread, Nareme Melián’s scenic proposal is characterized by the representation of the most important geographical landmarks of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, from the Guimerá Theater to the Plaza de Toros or Spain. In addition to the previous epicenters of the party, the iconic characters King Kong or Superchicha will take center stage.
During the presentation, the mayor of the city, José Manuel Bermúdez, congratulated Nareme Melián for “his new contribution to the Santa Cruz Carnival”, on this occasion “debuting a new facet as a set designer.” The first mayor stated that for a good carnival attendee “this presentation represents the unofficial beginning of the most important festivities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife”, highlighting that this stage “summarizes perfectly the historical essence of our Carnival and the places and stories that marked part of our lives.”
The Festival Councilor, Javier Caraballero, confirmed that the stage of this edition “brings together perfectly the different sets that have been part of our carnival history”; For the mayor, “the mask festival, like television, is the thread that connects different generations and has served to popularize spaces and customs.”
Caraballero defines that the stage space “is designed not only to be attractive, but also so that the work of our groups shines with all its intensity from the first minute, since they are the true protagonists.” At this point, he highlighted that the design of this edition “provides for a particular Walk of Stars, as a heartfelt tribute to all those people who have done their bit to make our Carnival the best party in the world and who, unfortunately, , they are no longer among us.”
For her part, the CEO of the Development Society, Carmen Pérez, pointed out the importance of Carnival as a tourist promotion of the city, “a generator of economy and one of the pillars of the economy. The number of tourists in 2023 reached 170,000 in the two weeks of celebrations”, and added “the hotel occupancy rate from February 17 to February 26 stood at 89.44%, reaching peaks of 100% on the days of Piñata.”
The set designer, Nareme Melián, stated that the stage “is conceived as a large television set that transmits the history of this medium, through the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife”; “something that is materialized through the succession of different historical spaces that are, in turn, united under the roof of the Fairgrounds.”
Melián highlighted “the color palette of the adjustment chart deconstructed into the different elements that make up the setting”; because, according to the set designer, “Carnival is precisely that: the deconstruction of spaces, characters or concepts and their subsequent resignification based on a humorous vision.”
Stage
The stage for the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival 2024 will occupy a stage area of 1,200 square meters and its support will occupy approximately 1,600 square meters, with a maximum height of 16 meters. The design will be modular in various heights adapting to the shape of the roof of the Fairgrounds. The stage surface will have a width of 60 meters in its front part and a distance of 26 meters between the central door and the stage mouth.
The different participating groups will be able to access it through three 23-meter ramps and in this edition there will also be an extension of the rotating 14.5 meter towards the public. Furthermore, due to the span of the support, on both sides of the stage, the structure will fly between 6 and 4 meters, leaving the passage free without obstacles for free transit.
The design is designed to provide the greatest possible dynamism to the evolution of the parades of the queen candidates, as well as to the performances of the groups and collectives that will participate in the different competitions. For this, there will also be a total of 400 square meters of screens, which, distributed at different points of the creative proposal, will provide greater visual impact to the show that takes place on stage.
Nareme Melián Mahugo (Tenerife 1987) has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of La Laguna specializing in Drawing and Illustration (2005-2010). From a very early age he entered children’s illustration, illustrating for various publishers and magazines, giving a new current vision to the Aboriginal world and the Canary Islands. He currently combines his work as an illustrator with the design of characters and backgrounds for animation and advertising series.
Posters are another of his creative facets, where he has developed part of his career, from visual supports for various carnivals in the Canary Islands (Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2018 and 2023, Arona 2019, 2020 and 2023, Los LLanos de Aridane 2023, Maspalomas 2022 and Arrecife 2018), to various oral storytelling festivals such as the Los Silos International Storytelling Festival 2017 (Tenerife), Un Vallehermoso de Cuentos 2016, 2020 and 2022 (La Gomera) and ¿Qué se cuece? 2017 (La Palma). He has also been the author of posters linked to folkloric and traditional traditions such as the May Festival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 2019 and 2023 and the May Festival of Los Realejos in 2018.
