Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival

The Tenerife capital’s most iconic celebration gets under way. This year’s Carnival has a Caribbean theme and proceedings kick off on 1 February with the preliminary round of the junior Murgas (satirical singing groups) contest. This will be followed by a host of events, including the various Carnival Queen competitions – Junior (Sunday 12 February), Senior Citizens (Wednesday 15) and Adult (Wednesday 22) -, the competitions for the Rondalla singers (Sunday 19) and colourful Comparsa dancing troupes (Saturday 18), the Grand Opening Parade (Friday 24), Rhythm and Harmony Parade (Saturday 25), Daytime Carnival (Sunday 26 February and Saturday 4 March), the traditional Coso closing parade (Tuesday 28), performance of the Ni Fu Ni Fa group and the fireworks display (Sunday 5 March), which brings this must-see event on the Santa Cruz calendar to a close.

• When: from 1 February to 5 March
• Where: Santa Cruz de Tenerife
• Information: www.webtenerife.co.uk/what-to-do/carnival/
• Programme: www.carnavaldetenerife.com/blog/portfolio/Programme-provisional-del-carnaval-2017/