The craziest party region in all of Europe!

The hottest
fiestas are on
Gran Canaria !

So.... you thought Gran Canaria was just a laid back holiday resort for old and retired folks?

- Forget about it. And think again!



Story by Bjorn Ulfsson / Canarian Times
Photographs by Björn Ulfsson & Terri Casella

No other region in Europe features so many large public parties as Gran Canaria! These fiestas are crazy, packed with people and has a strikingly warmhearted atmosphere due to an astonishing generational mix.

So if you thought of Gran Canaria as a rather dull little island packed with lazy tourists and hideous hotel complexes, think again!

For even though you will find a fair bit of rather dull concrete "ghettos" in the south of the island, just leave Maspalomas and Playa Inglés for a day, and you will also find an amazing party scene - set in an amazing natural landscape!

This tiny little island is packed to the brim with things to see and do that most foreigners either don't know about, or are too lazy to get up from their poolside lounge chairs to experience!

So please, if you're looking for the cultural party scene of your life time, follow our advice and rent a car and get out of the "tourist ghettos" of Playa Inglés and Puerto Rico, and we'll promise you an incredible experience, real Canarian hospitality, great local food and a friendly and vivacious drinking culture that could possibly even measure up to the UK's and Ireland's !

The Canarians LOVE to party!

Ironically, summer is the time when this holiday island experiences it's most intensive party season.

From about the middle of July and until the end of October it is official "Fiesta Season" on Gran Canaria, and in all the small villages and towns, along the coasts and up in the mountains, there are grand weekly festivities put on that often draw tens of thousands of people.

When the Canarians put on a party, it is possible even a Brit or an Irishman would find it quite challenging to keep up with the locals' "downing of the pints..."

Whenever Gran Canaria has a statutory or religious holiday - and there's quite a few - Canarians find an excuse to party.

Whatever the occasion, whether it's one of the large official holidays or one of the hundreds of minor religious holidays celebrated throughout the island, you can be sure of one thing:

Somewhere on the island, there will be a fiesta...

...and when the Canarians put on a party, they PARTY!

It's not only in the capital and the larger cities where people party. Some of the best fiestas are hosted by villages with only a few hundred permanent residents.

On an island with only 20o kilometers circumference - not much more than the Greater London area - distance make little difference. If there's no fiesta in the town where you live, you can easily go party somewhere else!

There's always a fiesta somewhere on Gran Canaria!

A nice introduction till fiestas on Gran Canaria could be "La Vara del Pescao" - the Fiesta of the Fishing Rod" - in Arinaga in the south-eastern part of the island. During this fiesta, which takes place every year around the first weekend of September, tons of fresh fish is distributed to the thousands of people that gather on this gorgeous beach.

And while local dance and music groups play great local folk music on their peculiar local instruments made from sea shells, everyone eats BBQ-ed fish and drinks to their hearts content - free for anyone you wants to join in.

Canarian or foreigner - it doesn't matter. Just like most Canarian fiestas, everyone is invited to join in!

The most well known of the public fiestas is of course the Carnival which happens during late January and the beginning of February in Las Palmas and a few weeks later in Playa Inglés.

The largest Carnival outside of Brazil

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria features the largest Carnival outside of Rio de Janeiro.

One of the major highlights of this fiesta is La Cabalgata - The Grand Parade -where virtually the whole city dresses up to dance and drink in the streets.

The carnival is also a time when Gran Canaria shows it's true fave as a haven for transsexual and gay men, and during the Carnival they dress up on their most fantastic and elaborate costumes.

The Drag Queen competition is, along with the Carnival Queen pagent, the most popular of all the stage perforances during the Carnival. During the grand parade, the cart displaying the gay men and the drag queens is always one of the most popular.

The last day of the Carnival isa bizarre event called the "Funeral of the Sardine", where a gigantic fish is carried through the city, down to the Canteras beach, and lit on fire, followed by a gigantic display of fire works. The events draws tens of thousands of people dressed in black clothes to symbolize "mourning" that this year's Carnival has come to an end.

But the real traditional Canarian fiestas are different from the somewhat commercialized Carnival, and most of them do not happen in Las Palmas.

They are nevertheless not any less nutty and crazed, and they are no less packed with people.

Featuring a bizarre mix of one part Catholisim and a few more parts pagan hedonism they are - for the most part - jolly old fun and a great opportunity to get to know the unknown side of your favourite holiday island.

Otherwise nearly deserted villages and towns go through a remarkable resurrection process when tens of thousands of people pour in from all over the island to put on enormous religious processions and to play folk music on the streets.

And on Gran Canaria, folk music is alive and kickin', not just a barely kept obligation among aging members of heritage societies. No, on Gran Canaria it is considered "cool" even among the young to be all into things local and Canarian.

Tremendous fireworks in almost every town

Usually, the final nights of the major fiestas end with tremendous world class fireworks that would impress any pyrotechnical expert from anywhere in the world. For the Canarians, large fireworks costing tens of thousands of Euros are nearly a given for any festive occasion.

- Every village and every town has their own unique traditions, and for most of the locals, it is a given thing to uphold them, even if it means hundreds of hours in preparations. The fiestas of Gran Canaria are much more numerous and much larger than anything I've seen in South America, says Nelson Salasar Luna, a Chilean immigrant who has lived on Gran Canaria since the year 2000.

A mix of Catholicism and heathen rituals

While most are centered around some form of catholic, religious holiday, many of these fiestas also have their roots in traditions far older than even Catholicism. Some of them even date back to the "Guanche" cave people that inhabited this island for thousands of years before the Spanish conquest.

One particular scene is a most common feature of Canarian festivities; a Madonna statue or the image of a saint is being carried around the village, followed by thousands of pilgrims.

The other is this, the so called "Romeria, which is an agricultural procession very similar to ancient pagan and heathen offering festivals.

The best of the lands produce and meat products are carried on elaborately decorated carts, drawn by oxen, horses or donkeys, and eventually offered to the statue by the entrance to the church in the town or village square.

But in these modern day fiestas the produce is no longer necessarily "sacrificed" to the Virgin Mary - but instead the food nowadays is packaged up and given to various charity organizations as an offering to the poor.

This is how the bridge between religious fiesta participants and those of a more sceptic nature is bridged.

Religious or no, everyone can agree that charity is a good thing, and as far as the local patron saint or madonna, which is unique for every village on the island,even an atheist can appreciate their home town's the strong identification with their local version of the Madonna.

But even though religion - at least superficially - is the structure of this utterly Canarian folk culture, everyone involved would probably agree that it is rather the copious amounts of beer, and local Arehucas-rum, that forms the glue that keeps it all together, rather than religious virtue.

During the summer, many of the coastal towns put on special fishing fiestas, which are mainly celebrated on the decks of commercial fishing boats.

Try some time to get an invitation to a local family boat fiesta, during La Fiesta del Carmen in Ariguinneguin, and experience when Canarians party to the honour of the Madonna of the Sea!

During a period between late July and late October, which is when most Canarians have their holidays, it is official fiesta season on the island, and during this period there are several great fiestas happening simultaneously somewhere on the island every weekend.

La Cuevita - the Madonna of the Little Cave

La Cuevita - The Madonna of the Little Cave - is one of the nicest fiestas to visit, simply because of the gorgeous surrounding nature scenes in the tiny mountain village of Artenara.

The view is simply spectacular and the fiesta one of the most interesting and fun to experience.

Artenara is especially known throughout the island for it's many cave dwellings, and during the first and last days' events of this fiesta, the villages make a procession where they take a statue of the Virgin Mary for a walk in the village from their local local, which is located in a cave deep in the mountain.

This is a very emotional moment for the villagers, and many cry when they see the statue "La Cuevita" on the streets.

During the last and final weekend of the three week long fiesta "La Cuevita", we can especially recommend a visit to "La Batalle de Flores" - The War of Flowers - where young and old villagers dance around the main square while throwing several tons of confetti on each other.

- I've lived abroad for over 20 years, but Artenara is where my family has it's roots, says Victor Gonzalez, while vainly trying to pick a piece of confetti out of his eye.

Gonzalez runs a restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, but he always returns to the fiesta of La Cuevita, faithfully, year after year.

For Victor Gonzales and many other Canarians, the most important aspect of the fiesta is the local folk traditions that are so unique to this island. When Victor and his friends are playing guitar, singing and drinking beer on the street at the local Artenara pub, both foreign and modern Spanish songs are banned. Canarian folk music is the only way to go during the fiesta season.

Folk dance and jazz in Artenara

During the festival of "La Cuevita", one of the best opportunities to see great Canarian folk dance and jazz is offered on various days of this three week festival.

On one of the main days towards the end of the festival, folk groups from all over the Canarian Archipelago comes to Artenera to play perform in a large annual folk dance gathering. The folk groups and dancer keep a very high standard and the event is a must see for anyone interested in traditonal Canarian farming culture.

- To me, this is something which is unique to all of Europe. You will not find this anywhere else. The fiesta season is my favourite time of year because I can spend all night on the street with my friends and sing and drink beer, says Victor Gonzalez.

For many Canarians, fiestas are of course just that - an excuse to drink and have fun.

But the uniquely compelling part of this type of parties is that the generations aren't segregated. People of all ages mix side by side - from 8 to 80 - and the traditions are still in focus, not just the drinking and the partying.

El Charco - The Fiesta of the Mud Pond

For those interested in visitiing one of the more "crazy" fiestas, we can highly recommend "El Charco" - The Fiesta of the Mudpond"- in the village of La Aldea de San Nicholas on the western part of the island.

Officially this fiesta is dedicated to Saint Nicholas, who is the patron saint of the village, men in reality this festivity is a distant echo from the island's pagan past, when the aboriginals of Gran Canaria - the Guanches - arranged dance rituals for the purposes of calling down rain.

"El Charco" offically last for three weeks, but the main event usually starts on the Friday of the second weekend in September. This is when "La Rama" - the Fiesta of the Pine Branch - is held, and this event basically consists of thousands of young people dancing a rather wild and primitive dance while shaking pine branches above their heads.

This part lasts for at least eight hours or more, and it is an incredible sight to see the streets of this tiny village being "invaded" by all these very happy people, dancing and singing and drinking until they basically drop.

The festivities continue on Saturday morning, when the participants - often with no sleep whatsoever - start the day by swimming in the ocean at dawn.

Later on the second day of the weekend of the main event, it is time for "Romeria" - a word which which means an agriculturar procession where carts loaded with fruit, vegetables and meat parade through the center of town and finally offer the produce to the saint in front of the village church.

During this procession, which also goes on for many hours, meat is grilled on the back of these fantastic, elaborately decorated carts, and drinks are constantly poured. The partying continues all night, and in the Romeria, it is common for both young and old to get quite wasted, in a great generational "piss-up mix"...

On Sunday morning, traditionally families meet up down by the ccean and this special tidal pond - "El Charco" - to prepare for the main event of the weekend by barbequing, and continuing to drink and play music.

Many - especially the younger partcipants -at this point have not slept at all since Thursday night, and the atmosphere is charged with antcipation for the great mudbath of "El Charco".

"The fiesta of the Mud Pond" is celebrated by up to 30 000 people, all pushing their way to get wet in this tiny mud pond.

The participants cheer and chant for hours around the pond, building up a frenzy, mush like at a great football match. The atthmosphere gets more and more charged, until a small piece of fireworks is shot up into the air, marking the official start signal for tens of thousands of people to jump into the pond, chasing small fish with their bare hands.

As you can see, it is also the signal for all hell to break loose!

The mad crowd runs down into pond and beats the surface of the water chanting a deafening rhytmic cry. This ritualistic element dates back to pre-historic times when beating the surface of a body of water was believed to have a positive effect on the rain gods.

The beating of the water shocks the fish, making them slow and therefor easier for the drunken crowd to catch.

It also has the rather entertaining effect of turning the usally clear tidal pond into an enormous mud basin!

"El Charco" is of course a huge media event. But as a camera man or a reporter, you have to watch out. If you step over the rather faintly chalk line drawn a few yeards away from the pond, you will be sure to be thrown in, camera and all.

Anybody who has ever entered the mud pool can testify you have to invaribly throw the clothes you're wearing in the water. "El Charco clothes" are neither washable or usable afterwards - and neither is anything else purposely or accidently thrown into the brown, mucky soup.


- During "El Charco" we throw in TV-reporters, priests, politicians and even mightier people than that. Nobody coming near the mud pond is safe. We throw them in with cameras, wallets, phones and all... Such are the rules! says young Canarian Manolo Monteverde, with an incredibly muddy grin on his face, and a freshly caught sardine in his hand.

Sunday night continues with - what else ?- more beer and more Arehucas rum... and may I remind you that by now many have not slept more than maybe a few hours since Thursday night!

El Pino in Teror - The Fiesta of the Madonna in the Pine Tree

The largest religious fiesta - "El Pino" - is also held in the beginning of September and gathers up to 200 000 people in the mountain town of Teror. Also during this fiesta the streets are quite overloaded with food and drink, but at least officially, the reasons for putting on this party are religious.

The fiesta is dedicated to The Madonna in the Pine Tree, and this tiny statue and the church of Teror that normally houses it, is a personifcation of religous life for devout Catholics on the entire island.

To satisfy both religious and- ... hmm shall we say less religious partcipants - the fiesta is divided in two main events, the popular one being held on Saturday and the religious on Sunday.

The Saturday party begins virtually everywhere on the island, where people of all towns, villages and cities walk the entire night in a gigantic pilgrimage to reach their "Canarian Jerusalem".

May I add that driving on the mountain roads on this night is a night mare and driver are running a serious risk of running crowds of people down as they walk, bottle in hand, virtually invisable in the dark night.

The Virgin Mary is more important to the Catholics of Gran Canaria than perhaps anywhere else in Europe, and the kind of madonna worship these islanders engage sometimes seems closer to the various tribal religions of Africa than what church goers are used to in Northern Europe.

- "The Fiesta of the Madonna in the Pine Tree" is the most important fiesta, not just for Teror but for he entire island. It is a mix of one part religion, but also a much larger part of traditional culture and folk lore. For us, this fiesta, and also the statue of the Madonna of the Pine Tree, is first and foremost a cultural code, something for us Canarians to identify with, says Juan Pedro, who has participated in the fiesta every year his whole life.

Evil is let loose for one night a year in Valsequillo

One fiesta which definately does not have it's roots in the Christian tradition is "La Suelta del Perro Maldito" (The Relase of the Mad Dog"). This fiesta is usually celebrated in the middle of September, is an enormous street theater put on once a year in the village of Valsequillo.

It is old pagan ritual reminiscent of Haloween and the Festival of the Burning Man. The idea is that a demon is let loose for one night, reminding people of the presence of "Evil" and teaching them to handle their fears.

Some large winter fiestas

The "fiesta season" usually ends officially with the procession "La Naval" in the capital of Las Palmas, in the end of October. This marks the end o the "Canarian summer", and enormous processions with carts, music groups and street performers start their parade in the Santa Catalina Park.

Because this fiesta takes place right in the center of Las Palmas, it is one of the easiest for a foreigner to experience.

Canarian Christmas with the Three Wise Men on Camels

Canarain Christmas falls on the 5th of January, and is celebrated with an enormous parade where thousands of people dress up to follow the Three Wise Men riding on real camels and throwing out hundreds of pounds of candy to a crazed crowd of kids.

The Christmas parade is an event celebrated in many towns and villages on Gran Canaria, but the the parade in Las Palmas is by far the largest, but unfortunately also the most commercialized. The more old fasioned types of Christmas parades are held in smaller towns.

Some other interesting winter fiesta are the celebration of Santa Lucia in the village of Santa Lucia de Tirajuana on December 13th, and La Fiesta de Almendras - the Almond Flower Festival in Tejeda in February.

By: Björn Ulfsson & Terri Casella