Canaries Events

Canarians love their fiestas and celebrations and are always delighted to share their delight and joy during these happy occasions with visitors. Local people are very good at upholding age-old traditions and religious festivals are celebrated extensively on the islands, with slight variations on each island.

Religious processions, street celebrations honouring the Virgin in all her manifestations, special events to celebrate different patron saints, all-night local dances in the open air to mark important days in the Catholic calendar such as Semana Santa (Easter Week), these lively and participative festivals coexist with pagan rituals inherited from the ancient inhabitants designed to bring rain.

The Canaries are also home to Carnival celebrations that can rival those of Rio de Janeiro or Venice. During Carnival time, the streets are full of partying people wearing masks, fancy dress costumes, and everything is bathed in music, light and colour.

Local dances and music sessions are often accompanied by original musical instruments from the islands’ folklore heritage such as the ‘timple’, a small guitar with four or five strings, which produces a remarkably surprising and pleasing sound.

Details of the specific events held on Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and La Palma can be found in the following pages.