After three years in which Their Majesties have not been able to meet the children of the Canary Islands as they wanted, this year, finally, the time has come to return to the traditional receptions and parades across the archipelago. Here is an overview of what happened in the provincial capitals of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The Santa Cruz Parade in Tenerife began at 7:00pm this evening, after Melchior, Gaspar and Baltasar arrived at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium by helicopter at 5:00pm to be met by 16,500 people who had bought tickets to be there.
At the CD Tenerife stadium, there was a show with more than 700 extras and the kings collected the last letters from the children in attendance, and, of course, the magic key to the city, from the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, with which they will open all the doors.
Tonight’s parade had 12 floats, two of them with live music, along with more than a thousand characters and extras that formed part of a multicoloured route that began on Avenida de Belgica, watched by an estimated 100,000 people.
During the parade, the pages of the three Wise Men gave out a total of 2,500 kilos of gluten-free candies and an additional 500 kilos that were sugar-free by hand.
Las Palmas – Gran Canaria:
The Three Wise Men arrived in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at midday. Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar disembarked at the Sanapú dock, next to the Poema del Mar aquarium, after arriving by boat.
Here, they were given the keys to the city from the mayor, Augusto Hidalgo, in a big ceremony for 8,000 people hosted by Roberto Herrera.
The parade started just after 5:00pm along its traditional route through the city between the castle of La Luz, in La Isleta, and the park of San Telmo. It consisted of ten floats and almost 600 extras that made up the royal entourage, with Roman centuries, musicians, Harry Potter characters, and the protagonists of the Star Wars, thanks to the collaboration of the Star Wars Gran Canaria Association, all taking part.
Apart from recovering pre-pandemic normality, the 2023 parade will also be remembered for being the first in which the music was turned off in the section between the Julio Luengo tunnel and the Santa Catalina hospital.
This was done to achieve a space where children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could enjoy the Three Wise Men without being disturbed by noise. The area provided for them was marked with banners that displayed the message "we are sensitive".
Following the parade, partygoers were treated to live music in Triana, which recovered the tradition of taking the bars out onto the street, where an influx of around 40,000 people is expected until 2am.
