There is still more than a month to go to celebrate Christmasbut Santa Cruz de Tenerife has moved ahead on the calendar and, since the end of October, has begun to install the characteristic lighting for these dates in neighborhoods and streets in the central area of the capital, as confirmed by the Councilor for Public Services, Carlos Rate.
In this regard, the City Council assured that “there is already enough installed and during the first weeks of November the installation of new lights will continue in the rest of the neighborhoods and streets of Santa Cruz.”
Although the general lighting of the Christmas lights in the capital of Tenerife will be one of the first on the Island, as it is scheduled for next November 23, sources from the Consistory indicated that “a week later the lighting will be carried out by zones, in addition that new decorative elements will continue to be installed and specific spaces improved in different parts of the city to make it more attractive for visitors and businesses.”
In this sense, the mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, announced to DIARIO DE AVISOS that “this year the capital will have a pioneering programming and lighting that will greatly enliven the city.” In this regard, he made reference to the novel initiative of illuminating the Rambla de Santa Cruz for the first time, an action that implicitly involves improving the capital’s Christmas lighting so that it is on par with the best cities in Spain on these dates.
This innovative Christmas lighting project of the City Council will cover the Rambla de Santa Cruz, from the Acidalio Lorenzo pool to the Marina Command, installing LED lights for the first time in the almost 200 trees that are along this route.
“It is a great work and effort that is being done so that Santa Cruz can look like never before during the Christmas season. And everything is being carried out thanks to the involvement of a united government team that I am also lucky enough to lead,” the first mayor stressed.
The idea of the capital City Council is that all the lighting will be almost completed at the beginning of November and, to this end, it has begun to carry out night tests on La Rambla, as well as completing the installation of lights in streets as central as La Rosa.
Bermúdez stressed that “we are underway and at cruising speed on many projects that will benefit the city in the short and medium term, as is the case of El Toscal, where we are making a major transformation of public space. La Rosa street will be followed by San Martín street and then Santiago and Santa Clara streets. Streets that today are very small, there are practically no cars passing through and it is almost impossible to park. The idea is to make them pedestrian or semi-pedestrian,” he added.
A works plan that is currently underway in the central La Rosa street and that has led to complaints from neighbors and merchants, including the closure of 39 businesses in recent months.
Likewise, he recalled that the pedestrianization of El Toscal will be accompanied by the construction of the underground parking in Almeyda, another in Pisaca, maintaining the fields as they are, and the future parking on the Port esplanade. The trend is that in the center of the cities the vehicle is increasingly limited and, in the case of El Toscal, this is what is planned.”
Carnival
Once Christmas is over, Carnival 2024 will begin, with its celebration brought forward next year. For this reason, the mayor of Santa Cruz announced that “the presentation of the candidates for Queen will take place almost a week after Three Kings, so the contests will begin very soon and the galas too.”
Bermúdez stressed that “we have to continue being the best Carnival in the world on the street, both day and night, and to do so we must maintain a massive level of influx of people with few incidents.”
Among the planned developments, he detailed that “we will have some leading international artists, but the basis of the dances will continue to be our local artists and orchestras.” He also commented that another important act linked to the festivities will be the appointment of Juan Viñas as Favorite Son of the City.
