Music, colour, madness, and costumes explode into life all over Santa Cruz every February and March but even during the rest of the year it permeates the city as costumes are made, routines rehearsed, and stages constructed. Bottling that excitement into a yea round visitors centre and museum has proved elusive in the past so a month after its opening, I eagerky visited the Casa Del Carnaval or Carnaval House in Barranco del Santos inalnd at Tenerife’s capital city.
It’s not an easy setting for the 3 million euro purpose built centre as it lies below and between two of the largest bridges over the dry ravine that can decome a raging river in winters big downpours. Plenty of signs posted the way from the shopping and port area but I approached from the bus station direction to the Puente Serrador bridge and took the many stone stairs down. Higher up the barranco the drop from the towering Puente Galceran involves more steps, or a long rambling ramp, car access is possible but a bit of a labyrinth through back streets. Maybe a shuttle bus calling around the city would be a good future idea or get the open top tour bus to include the centre on its route.
The frontage looks bright, cheery, and modern, and the staff are very friendly and welcoming but on my late July visit it wasn’t all finished. I soon learned that it wont go full blown until September 2017. Until then it is free, a yet to be agreed low feel from September is expected to be a maximum of two euros. Undaunted I walked through the entrance hall lined with old Carnaval posters and large interactive displays. Pride of place went to the winning costume of the 2017 Carnaval Queen. I was pleased to see a few other visitors on this Saturday afternoon, I later read they had 4,000 visitors in the first month.
Heading into the biggest hall I was impressed by the huge circular, glass, back lit, display case, it gave a great feel of the splendour and sheer scale of Carnaval. There was a central bank of interactive stations with large video displays on various aspects of Carnaval, and earphones for a commentary in Spanish or English. It was very informative but the English option wasn’t working – ready in September. Further along were sets of virtual reality goggles to immerse yourself in the swirl of Carnaval, again only Spanish until September. Cruise ship visitors have been mentioned as one target audience so the English, and maybe German would be a big boost. At ehe nd of the hall was a mock up theatre stage, seating area, and racks of costumes for children to enjoy the dressing up frenzy. That´s another winning idea as school groups are high on the target audience list too, passing on Carnaval tradition to the next generation is a proud tradition.
Another exhibition hall featured costumes and history of the various groups like comparsas and murgas.There were also a lot of old newspaper front pages showing coverage on Carnaval through the years. Back in the entrance hall I popped into the cafe bar but that was just an empty shell with a few seats, it leads out onto a spacious outside terrace and will be a nice area to realx and discuss the exhibitions – hopefully from September. The cafe bar must be the key ingredient to making the museum at least partially self supporting. A second floor houses archives and a study area – again very commendable, I hope it all comes together, Santa Cruz needs and deserves a home for Carnaval history. A few years ago there was a permanent exhibition of Carnaval costum es in the Parque Bulevar shopping centre but it only lasted just over a year.
On my way out I did enjoy gazing upward at the magnificent structure of the Puente Galceran bridge. Tha t has stood the test of time and I hope the Casa Del Carnaval can do the same. I will definately be back to see the complete picture later in the year. In the meantime it is open daily from 9am to 7.30 pm.