YOUNG AND OLD ENJOY RIOTOUS CARNIVAL

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Saturday February 13 2010

Los Rebeldes junior murga take part in the carnival procession

TENERIFE'S capital Santa Cruz celebrated the first night of the 2010 carnival in a riot of music and dancing on Friday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Residents young and old turned out to participate in the huge cavalcade and street party.

Elaborate floats carrying the winners and other contestants in the child, adult and senior carnival queen competitions were interspersed troupes of dancers and drummers, murgas – Tenerife's satirical pantomime-opera choruses – and mixed cohorts of locals in fancy-dress.

Groups – many of them made up of children or senior citizens – styled their costumes in a plethora of occidental and oriental themes, from the Aztecs and Mayans of Central America to Arabia, India, China and Japan.

Regular one-man acts such as 'Miss Piggy', 'Harpo Marx', 'Charlie Chaplin' and and 'Fidel Castro' were all present, along with relative newcomer Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Indeed, Tenerife's 5,000 or more Venezuelans were well represented with an impressive float bearing a larger-than life statue of a white horse – representing 19th-century colonial liberation hero Simon Bolivar.

Spectators lined the streets for miles. Many people watched from the windows and balconies of their homes or brought chairs out onto the pavement.

Public transport operator TITSA doubled the carrying capacity of the Santa Cruz – La Laguna Tranvia tram system by coupling together pairs of the standard four-section articulated units.

The capital's bars had more business than they could handle from the tens of thousands of party-goers in every conceivable style of costume. Many set up makeshift bars in front of their premises, competing with temporary kiosks and enterprising rum hawkers.

Street Party

Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, more men dressed as women, women dressed as men dressed as women, angels and devils, nuns and priests, cops and robbers, soldiers and rebels, all mixed in an alcoholic fruit cocktail of colour and sound

Smurfs – or Pitufos as they are called in Spain – rubbed blue shoulders with the other-worldly Na'vi from the recent Hollywood blockbuster Avatar and the Canaries' indigenous Guanches.

By 1 am mayhem was general as every street and square became a packed dance floor. Rival sound systems, some mounted on trolleys and customised vehicles, created an instant mash-up of pop, house and reggaeton.

The crowds were entertained by performances from Pepe Benavente y Trío Diamante and Ray Castellano and the Acapulco Orchestra in Plaza Candelaria, Kimbara and DJ El Flaco will entertain the younger carnival-goers in Plaza Europa, while the Gomeray and Salsarengue orchestras will provide more traditional dance music in Plaza del Príncipe.

The party was still going string at 5 am when this reporter left the scene.

Over-zealous Chicharreros – as natives of Santa Cruz are known – nursing hangovers on Saturday afternoon faced more than a week of festivities until the Carnival's finale on Sunday February 21.

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