In a complete turnaround in the last 24 hours, both Santa Cruz and Las Palmas city councils have admitted that they are planning street parties for their carnivals, trusting that restrictions will be gone by June and that dancing will be allowed. Although there isn’t a set date for the event in the capital of Gran Canaria yet, the mayor of Las Palmas, Augusto Hidalgo, said yesterday that if the appropriate sanitary conditions are met, they could hold events in the street during a summer weekend.
The City Council of Las Palmas intends to carry out the gala elections between February 25th and March 20th following relevant restrictions, but then have a ‘party weekend’ that doesn’t clash with the traditional festivities in June or with the carnivals of other municipalities, such as Santa Cruz which has moved to June, or San Bartolomé de Tirajana which is also in summer.
On Monday, the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, released the new official poster for Carnival 2022, a digital creation of Borja Jiménez Mérida which was chosen as the winner in a public vote between January 13th and 23rd. The winning poster, proposed by the rapper from Tenerife popularly known by his stage name Bejo, got 28.1% of the 10,077 votes cast.
At the announcement the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez said there was no way that street bands and celebrations would happen under current restrictions, however, he has now confirmed that they haven’t been ruled out and that meetings with the organisers include plans for street parties in June.
“Hopefully, between now and June, the Government of Spain will declare the pandemic over, and then there would be Carnival on the street with no capacity or with a safety distance limitations. We are talking about a Carnival designed for thousands of people to enjoy safely”, he said.
The mayor also confirmed that during the June dates the installation of the amusement fair will be authorized, which will be done "complying with all health regulations", and that these are decisions that will help small businesses and freelancers who need it.
