Carnival in the Canary Islands: where, when, and which one to choose
If you're asking when carnival is in the Canaries, the honest answer is: for about two months. The first galas start in late January in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas, and the last sardine is buried some time in March in a southern resort town. In between, almost every weekend there's a stage up somewhere and a parade going on somewhere else.
This page exists so you don't have to piece the picture together from eleven town hall websites. It isn't a programme for one year, it's a map: when each town usually holds its carnival, and what makes it worth going there rather than somewhere else. The actual dates go on our agenda as soon as each town announces them.
If you'd like to read about the islands' fiestas in general, we've written about that separately: Canarian fiestas and romerías: what you have walked into, and what to do about it. On Tenerife, carnival is one of the winter celebrations, and this article goes round the whole year: Festivals and events in Tenerife: what is celebrated in each season.
Why there's no single date
Carnival was originally the last party before Lent, so its calendar is tied to Easter. Ash Wednesday falls 46 days before Easter Sunday, and since Easter moves from year to year, so does carnival: some years it lands in mid February, other years in early March.
The Canary towns, though, don't all celebrate at once. They spread the season out on purpose, so they don't take each other's crowds. Roughly, you can see three groups:
Those that peak in the week BEFORE Ash Wednesday. Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Los Realejos and Arrecife. Here the big parade is on Carnival Monday or Tuesday, and the burial of the sardine (Entierro de la Sardina) is on Ash Wednesday or straight after.
Those that RUN ACROSS it. Puerto de la Cruz, Icod de los Vinos, Puerto del Rosario and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Here the best days of carnival come in the week after Ash Wednesday.
Those that START AFTER it. Maspalomas holds its own in March, when it's all over in the capitals. A few smaller resort towns do the same, Los Cristianos in the south of Tenerife, for example.
And there's one exception worth knowing about: a town can also break with its own habit. Santa Cruz de Tenerife has moved its whole street carnival two weeks later for 2027, so that year it will fall after Ash Wednesday. We cover this in detail in our 2027 programme: Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2027: when it happens, what is on each day, and what it all means.
The takeaway is simple: the pattern helps you plan, but buy your ticket based on the town's own programme. That's why the descriptions below don't give dates, only when each carnival usually happens.
Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife. A Festival of International Tourist Interest since 1980; in 2024 more than ten thousand group members marched in its Coso alone. The contests and galas start in mid January, and the carnival usually takes to the streets in the week before Ash Wednesday: daytime street parties, night-time partying, and on Carnival Tuesday the Coso, the big parade. More: Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Celia Cruz, two hundred thousand dancers and a Tuesday parade along the seafront.
Puerto de la Cruz. It calls itself an international carnival, and with good reason: it has had an exchange with Düsseldorf and other German cities for more than fifty years. Its best-known event is the Mascarita Ponte Tacón, the men's race in high heels, on the Friday after Ash Wednesday. More: Carnival of Puerto de la Cruz: a high-heel race, German friends and a sardine at the harbour.
Los Realejos. It celebrates in the same week as Santa Cruz, but its big parade is on Carnival Monday, and in the mayor's words that day the town becomes "the carnival capital of the north". Its symbol is Señor Rascayú, a wooden figure that is made anew every year and burned at the end. More: Carnival of Los Realejos: Señor Rascayú, the Monday Coso and a day in the carnival capital of the north.
Icod de los Vinos. One of the northern carnivals, with a calendar that moves around more than the others: the big parade falls on a Sunday, but sometimes it's the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and sometimes the Sunday after. Here especially, it pays to wait for the programme to come out. More: Carnival of Icod de los Vinos: a wake on the square, a funeral procession towards the Centinela bridge and a wandering Sunday.
Gran Canaria
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The long carnival: it lasts five or six weeks, from late January or early February, and carries on for weeks after Ash Wednesday. The burial of the sardine on Las Canteras beach brings it to a close. The biggest parade, the Gran Cabalgata, usually crosses the city on the last weekend, over more than seven kilometres. Since 2023 this carnival has also been a Festival of International Tourist Interest, and since 1998 it has hosted the drag queen gala. More: Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: five weeks, a seven-kilometre parade and a sardine on Las Canteras beach.
Maspalomas. The end of the season: it's in March, after the Las Palmas carnival, and lasts about two weeks. It's aimed squarely at visitors as well: there's a separate gala for them, and the dying sardine is carried around on the beach. The Canary drag gala started here too, in 1986. More: Carnival of Maspalomas: a sardine on the beach, a gala for tourists and the season's last parade.
Lanzarote and Fuerteventura
Arrecife. A carnival of about two weeks that ends exactly on Ash Wednesday with the burial of the sardine. The big parade is opened by Los Buches: a sailors' parranda that whacks the onlookers with inflated fish stomachs, and whose costume was designed by César Manrique. More: Carnival of Arrecife: the sailors of Los Buches, inflated fish stomachs and a sardine on Ash Wednesday.
Puerto del Rosario. A carnival of a good two and a half weeks, peaking on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday with the big parade. The next day, the burial of the sardine and the drag gala close it. More: Carnival of Puerto del Rosario: Arretrankos, Achipencos and a sardine that is born here too.
La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro
Santa Cruz de La Palma. Here a single day carries the whole thing: Los Indianos, on Carnival Monday. A crowd dressed in white, Cuban music and clouds of talcum powder, a parody of the emigrants who came home rich from the Americas. More: Carnival of Santa Cruz de La Palma and Los Indianos: white clothes, talcum powder and a day in Havana.
San Sebastián de La Gomera. A carnival in February or March, whose main days in recent years have come after Ash Wednesday. What's unique to it is the day of talcum powder and indigo blue powder. More: Carnival of San Sebastián de La Gomera: talcum, indigo blue powder and a herring beside the sardine.
Valverde. El Hierro's capital holds its main days on the weekend after Ash Wednesday. A small carnival that people take part in, where residents spend months making the costumes and the floats. More: Carnival of Valverde: El Hierro's capital, where the residents build the parade.
How to choose
If you'd like two carnivals in one trip, the spread-out calendar is your friend. In a typical year, Puerto de la Cruz's best days fall on the Friday and Saturday after Santa Cruz's Carnival Tuesday, so you can go from one to the other. On Gran Canaria the same logic applies: Maspalomas comes after Las Palmas.
If you want less of a crowd, the carnivals of the smaller islands and the northern towns let you get closer. In Valverde the residents make the parade costumes and floats themselves, and Los Realejos puts a local carnival face on its poster every year.
And if you're coming for a single day and looking for something you won't find anywhere else, it's La Palma's Los Indianos day. White clothes, a handful of talcum powder, and that's it.
What we do, and what you do
These pages don't go out of date, because they aren't about specific years. But each town announces its own programme, usually a few weeks beforehand. As soon as it's out, we add it to the agenda and link to it from the town's page.
If you're booking a flight or accommodation for a specific day, check the town's official carnival page first. Carnival happens outdoors, and it has happened before that a parade was held a week later than announced.
Cover photo: a parade at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria carnival, 2019, Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources: Carnaval de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, history · Santa Cruz de Tenerife town hall, the 2027 programme · Carnaval de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Ayuntamiento de Arrecife
