Carnaval arrives in Arrecife this Friday 25th February, with the inauguration taking place on the seafront esplanade from 20.00. The annual festivities to celebrate the eve of Lent will begin in earnest next week, but the Mayor of Arrecife, Candido Reguera will present the full programme of events on Friday.

Accompanying the opening ceremony will be the Batucada group Villa Pipol. This year a special exhibition is to be inaugurated on Thursday 24th February in honour of Domingo Brito, a central figure in the Arrecife carnival celebrations of the past, who recently passed away.

The exhibition will feature a number of photos taken over the last twenty-five years, as well as a video diary covering Carnaval events, ranging from 1985 to 2010. It is being held at the Democratic Society headquarters in Calle Rafael Gonzales Negrin, 18,in the centre of Arrecife until 13th March.

The main activities begin at 18.00 on Thursday 3rd March when the traditional parade of Los Diabletes and Los Buches get underway. Los Diabletes are dressed in devil costumes, whilst Los Buches consists of local fishermen donning the typical clothing of farmer´s wives and carrying blown up fish bladders around with them as a form of weapon. The parades run through the network of streets that form the heart of the capital, in and around the main shopping thoroughfare, Calle Real.

On Saturday 5th March, there will be further musical offerings from local Batucada groups in the Parque de las Islas Canarias and all along the seafront to the Puente de las Bolas (or Balls Bridge). This mobile percussion parade starts at 12.30.

Also scheduled for Saturday evening is the annual competition to find the Carnaval Queen for Arrecife, which begins at 21.30 on the open-air stage on the seafront. The customary Drag Queen competition is planned for Sunday 6th March, beginning at 21.30, at the same location.

Between 4th and 9th March there will also be competitions to find the best street musicians or Murgas, the children's carnival procession, the burial of the sardine and the dance of the masks. Most of these activities will be taking place in the streets around the cultural centre of El Almacen and the Parque Ramirez Cerda on the seafront by the Calle Real or pedestrian shopping street, with plenty of live music offered by local bands such as Lanzarote Swing and Suso and Familia.