Carnival House

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Museums · Year: 2017

The museographic project called the Carnival House of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is an initiative of the City Council aimed at providing a permanent testimony and dissemination of the Santa Cruz carnival, the city's most important festival, declared of International Tourist Interest. 

The museum, inaugurated in 2017, is located in the Barranco de Santos park, beneath the Galcerán bridge. It has more than a thousand square metres where all those elements and qualities that make this festival so beloved by the citizens unique are exhibited. It includes a permanent exhibition, a multipurpose room that facilitates temporary exhibitions and presentations of all kinds, a documentation and research centre for carnival heritage, a café and a shop. 

Very little is known about the Santa Cruz carnival during the first two centuries of the town's existence. We know that during the 17th century the wealthiest families used to hold masked parties and dances in their homes. We also know that popular amusements took place in the street and their spirit was spontaneous and noisy, with games involving masks and ridiculous costumes. The authorities at the time did not look favourably on this type of recreational activity as, according to them, they affected public order and went against established moral and religious values. 

As the 19th century progressed, the dances began to be organised in clubs or associations, although the working classes continued to enjoy street entertainment, always threatened by the government authority. The 1852 municipal ordinances dedicated eight articles to carnival covering everything from its duration to the rules and behaviours to avoid fights. Wearing costumes and masks after dark was not authorised.

Year after year, despite international wars and epidemic outbreaks, the carnivals continued to be celebrated as something that broke the daily routine of a city that for a few days wanted to change its normal behaviour.

From the 1910s onwards the festival began to take shape as we know it today. Recreational societies started designing costumes with more "taste" and "originality", creating the first prizes for the most colourful fantasies. During the First World War the first murgas we have record of appeared, apparently introduced by a group of sailors from Cádiz who regularly docked in the port around this time. During the Roaring Twenties, rondallas gained notoriety, musical groups with string instruments, a solo singer and choir. In 1933 a carnival poster was awarded for the first time in a competition and announced the celebration of a dance at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. Two years later, organised by the Círculo de Amistad, the first Miss Carnival was chosen, a precursor to what we now know as the Carnival Queen.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, the Santa Cruz carnivals suffered the greatest halt in their history. In 1942 the Civil Government published in the local press that it would not tolerate any kind of parties where masks, disguises and costumes were shown, either in the street or in recreational societies. Timidly, as the decade progressed, the societies gave a nod to the authorities and began to organise some parties and costume balls in their halls, calling them "meetings enlivened by orchestras". Years later masks were again seen more regularly in the streets and the first rondalla competitions since the war were held. Despite the strong prohibition, in 1954 both the people of Santa Cruz and its city council supported the restoration of the festivities. Parrandas and masks were common in the streets near the dock, as well as dances in private societies, always within order and under close surveillance by the Civil Government. These overlapping parties became "legal" in 1961 with the celebration of the first "Winter Festivals of Santa Cruz de Tenerife". The carnivals disguised themselves with another name, justified by tradition and now being a tourist attraction.

After the arrival of democracy, in 1977 the carnivals regained their name and acquired unprecedented prominence, being declared in 1980 "Festivals of International Tourist Interest." Currently, and after several changes and improvements to adapt the festivities to the times, the Santa Cruz carnival remains the festival with the greatest popular participation in the city.

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