Street life... Carnival in Cádiz

Wondering what to do this weekend? Then how about joining in one of the world’s most spectacular of Carnivals? Right up there with the likes of Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans. Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and, of course, Notting Hill, the Cádiz Carnival is one of the world’s best, and it’s also the biggest and most extravagant anywhere in mainland Spain. It’s only around a 2-hour drive from Marbella. Tempted? Then read on…

OK, so quite a few towns and villages on the Costa del Sol do Carnival, too. But compared with Málaga’s world-famous Easter Week celebrations and its fabulous Feria in August – renowned as Europe’s biggest street party – Carnival on the Coast is a pretty low key event. So if you want raucous, riotous, satirical, colourful and exotic razzle dazzle, right off the scale… then the Cádiz Carnival is most definitely for you!

This year the 10-day festival comes to its exuberant grand finale on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 February, and if the city looks vaguely familiar even though you’ve never been there before, it’s not so much déjà vu as the fact that the ‘Havana’ scenes in 2002 blockbusting Bond movie ‘Die Another Day’, you know, the one starring Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry, were actually filmed on location in Cádiz.

Said to date back to 1104 BC, the city is the oldest continuously inhabited place anywhere in the Iberian Peninsula. It was also the first town in Spain to be granted its own Constitution and coincidentally celebrates its bicentenary this year. But I digress…

The citizens of Cádiz have been celebrating Carnival ever since the 16^th century when, as a major sea port, the festivities were introduced from Venice – which as far back as the 13^th century was already famous for its elaborate masked balls and colourful parades. So it goes without saying they’ve got it down to something of a fine art by now!

Go on, let your hair down. It’s time to party, the preparations and rehearsals have been going on since last September… and it just wouldn’t be the same without you!