It was 1974 when the south of Gran Canaria witnessed what were then called Winter Festivals. As 2024 begins, the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council will commemorate this activity with a promotional approach that is very focused on local society, although there is always the Parade with the crossing of tourists and people who come from other parts of the Canary Islands such as Las Palmas. The 1974 Carnival had its epicenter in what is now the Ecumenical Temple of Maspalomas and since 1983, 41 years ago, in the Yumbo shopping center built by Estanis Mañaricua. Pedro José Franco López, author of the book 'Maspalomas: El Carnaval' has great data and El Sur Digital echoes this in an interview.
The Maspalomas International Carnival emerged from the people of the region linked to tourism. Later, around the 90s, a band of so-called experts and professionals began to arrive from Las Palmas to break the mold and forced the local authorities to put out to tender things that the southerners had previously done voluntarily. Designers not known except in La Isleta also contaminated the Maspalomas International Carnival to modernize a party to turn it into a product that, to this day, has not recovered the scheme of its origins. That is to say: 50 years have passed since the Maspalomas Carnival with the Las Palmas Carnival harassing it to fail.
