Sitges Carnival
Sitges is one of Spain’s number one gay destinations. The Carnival here is a particularly flamboyant, uninhibited display and over 250,000 people come and visit this little town, filling it with colours and life over the course of seven days.
The parades of the Sitges Carnival are particularly show-stopping and feature bright floats and a Carnival King and Queen.
Sitges Carnival dates
23rd February - 1st March
Galicia Carnival
The Galicia Carnival is considerably different than the Carnivals of Tenerife, Cadiz and Sitges and is known in Galician as an “Entroido” or “Antroido”. There are various Carnivals of different themes in each Galician village, but each of these exhibit more historical and traditional themes rather than the typical, modern Carnival themes.
The majority of the biggest and most interesting Galician Carnivals take place in the province of Ourense. If you visit this area shortly after Christmas you’ll see the preparations for Carnival being laid down and interestingly, Galicia is home to some record breaking Carnivals.
The Laza Carnival is the oldest Carnival in the world and The Xinzo Carnival is the longest running Carnival in Europe. The main characters of the carnival are the “peliqueiros”, whose exquisite (and heavy) clothing - weighing almost 20 kilos - consists of a tall headdress with pompoms, a mask, short jacket, white shirt and scarf, tie, belt, laced shorts with tassels, red stockings, garters and ornamented pants.
Galicia Carnival dates
23 February