Events calendar Canary Islands

On the marvellous Playa de Sotavento, with its fine sand and almost transparent turquoise waters, the panorama is perfect for hosting the windsurfing world cup in a setting of dunes and volcanic cliffs. It is in this Caribbean style that the best sportsmen and women on the planet will compete. Windsurfing is a very popular sport in the Canary Islands. This event is accompanied by a musical program at night.

Declared of international tourist interest, it is the second most important in the world, after Rio. Bringing together Venetian elegance and Brazilian fever, it is famous for its great Mardi Gras parade, corso, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people in the Avenida de Anaga. On Ash Wednesday, the very solemn funeral of the Sardine also takes place on the Plaza de España: a sardine of unusual size is cremated there with great pomp and circumstance.

Created in 2015, this festival brings together hikers and offers them excursions on the different trails of the island. Choose from a total of fifteen proposals for coastal paths, volcanoes and beautiful forests, for a total of 1,500 kilometres. All accompanied by a professional guide. Also on the programme of this festival: animations as well as a presentation of gastronomy and products related to hiking and nature tourism.

According to a popular legend, the patron saint of the island of Lanzarote, "San Ginés" appeared floating in the waters of the Charco around 1700. This fiesta is always an occasion for extraordinary moments and a fiery atmosphere with a full programme of cultural and sporting events: concerts and festivals of Canarian rock and folklore (music and dances), homage to local wines, football matches and above all the election of Miss Lanzarote in the beauty contest, regattas and fireworks on the last day.

The Fiesta del Diablo or Festival of the devil is held every year with Tijarafe. In the heart of the noise and fireworks, inhabitants dance by celebrating the devil: they do not sleep and the arrival of the devil. Not waiting in the fear, but to oppose the strength of the mall well to the good by celebrating the Virgin. One of the most popular festivities of the island of although relatively recent creation from dating back to the beginning of xx^e siècle. Once brought to the village, Plaza de Candelaria, the devil explodes in change pyrotechnics.

Classified as a festival of international tourist interest, it has been held every five years since 1680. On the last Sunday of June, a romería, a pilgrimage, takes the Virgen de Las Nieves from her sanctuary to the church of El Salvador in Santa Cruz de la Palma. This marks the beginning of the semana chica, a small week, during which the Pantorga, a night parade, takes place. Then comes the semana grande marked by the parades of giants and especially the "dance of the dwarfs", which sees the dancers transform into dwarfs and dance to the rhythm of the polka.

This folk festival of the Virgin, in honour of the island's patron saint, celebrates the miracle of 1824, when the village of Mancha Blanca, a locality southwest of Tinajo, was spared the lava flow that stopped just before the village. During these same days, the village receives all the craftsmen from Lanzarote, but also from the Canary Islands and Spain on this day particularly followed by all. The virgin festivals take place on all the islands, each of which has its own protective virgin. Most pleasant atmosphere.

This ancestral festival of the "pond" or Party del Charco, proceeds in San Nicolás de Tolentino, into Large Canarie. This festival was declared of cultural and tourist interest. Delgado there Venegas, which was bishop of the Canaries, arrived in 1776 at this village and lives that men and women of the village bathed naked in a species of pond "marciega". Scandalized by this show, it excommunicated all the inhabitants of the village. The current inhabitants still remember this anecdote and they continue to bathe in the pond, but equipped, and one benefits from this opportunity to celebrate a competition of fishing there based on techniques of yesteryear and which evolved with the years.

The festival of San Miguel Arcangel begins on September 9th as every year and takes place in Tazacorte, in the west of the island of La Palma. Then there will follow a wide program of activities of all kinds that will last until October: cultural, religious, music, exhibitions of old cars, paintings and sculptures... and the famous parade of Caballos Fufos, horses (made of cardboard) with multicoloured fringes and occupied by dancers. This tradition goes back more than 100 years to the arrival of the Cuban carnival here.