SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Santa Cruz de Tenerife witnessed a Carnival Piñata that exceeded all expectations in terms of public attendance. The second Day Carnival of the year and the Piñata night dances were merged into the same festive day, with more than fifty performances in 18 uninterrupted hours of music and dance.
The movement of the public in the Carnival Quadrilateral reached around 400,000 people, from morning to night, according to data from the Local Police. Between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., approximately 56,590 vehicles entered the area, in addition to trips made by buses, trams, and taxis.
Mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, celebrated the success of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: “Once again the influx of people to our party shows that we have the best Carnival in the world, in which hundreds of thousands of people come together to have fun in a healthy and responsible manner. From the City Council, we will continue to ensure that this way of enjoying and experiencing the Carnival remains our best presentation and one of our main trademarks.”
The influx of people was especially evident hours before the concert by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi on the city’s coastal area, followed by Joseph Fonseca. The crowd ended up filling the entire area between Francisco La Roche Avenue, Alameda del Duque de Santa Elena, and Plaza de España, as well as adjacent streets such as La Marina, Villalba Hervás, and Emilio Calzadilla.
Since noon, when the program of activities organized by the City Council, through the Autonomous Festival Organization, began, the influx of people was constant around the stages installed in the Plazas de la Candelaria and del Príncipe and on Francisco Avenue. La Roche.
PIÑATA SUNDAY
The celebration continued into the early morning, almost till dawn on Sunday, which resumed the traditional activity of Piñata Sunday. The Senior Carnival will take place in the Plaza de La Candelaria starting at 5:00 p.m. and will be attended by around 400 seniors from all the islands. Attendees will enjoy the humor of Maestro Florido and the musical performances of the groups La Década Prodigiosa and Orquesta Tenerife.
Once the event is over, the Banda Loca Orchestra will perform until 10:00 p.m. The Plaza del Príncipe will host the traditional concerts by NiFú NiFá and La Zarzuela starting at 11:00 and 12:00, respectively.
Carnival 2024 will conclude with the traditional pyrotechnic display in the Plaza de España, starting at 6:00 p.m., in an event that will also reveal the theme of the next edition of the festival once the results of the vote are known, which ended last February 12.
SPECIAL CLEANING OPERATION
The municipal cleaning services, which deployed an extraordinary operation with more than 120 workers and fifty vehicles during the Carnival, will intensify their efforts in the busiest areas of the capital from tomorrow, Monday the 19th.
Up until the celebration of the Burial of the Sardine, this special Carnival operation had led to the removal of over 300 tons of waste, a reduction compared to the same period of the previous year.
During the last night, 104 people received assistance from the preventive device organized around the Carnival Hospital. As usual, alcohol poisoning accounted for the major cause (38.4% of the total), alongside trauma and falls, for which 15 people were treated.
Throughout the Day Carnival, 60 attendees were attended to, with a third of cases related to alcohol poisoning. Four patients had to be transferred to hospital centers for specific treatments or diagnostic tests.