The black plastic seats had been absorbing the 35 degrees plus of calima fuelled sunshine all day, a few people winced as they sat down, not the best night for a traditional Tenerife late start. A few people melted away and others moved to the shady side as they waited for the Arona Esta de Moda fashion parades to start. Would it be worth the wait? Thankfully yes, this years new position next to the Casa del Mar on the old Los Cristianos beach side of the tunnel allowed for a bigger grander stage with a small pit for a live band and the catwalk jutting out into the sea of seats for the audience.

The large video wall backdrop gave the sponsors more publicity and that was the name of the game, all the clothes on display were available at shops in the main Arona towns, a glossy brochure gave full shopping details. There were also a few stalls down each side promoting related items like hair and make up, in these times of empty council wallets underwriting these mass audience events with commercial backing makes good sense all round.

Anyway with a fanfare and a parade of young energetic dancers proving that Grease is the word, our compere was ready to introduce the first set of models. They were all local amateurs so full marks to them for coping with nerves and the stifling heat. The first models were very young but quite confident as they strutted out onto what must have seemed an endless catwalk. The clothes were chosen to be ordinary and accessible, none of these wild Paris or London creations that no real people would ever wear.

It was a good mix of ages, male and female showing off their threads, each section dealt with a different type of fashion, leisure, formal, swim wear, sport etc and the general set up was dancers out first to act as backing at the rear of the stage as the models went forth one by one and then joined a growing group pose on a podium before taking a collective bow.

Lots of proud parents were cooing with satisfaction in the audience and a few school friends were lurking at the side stocking up on embarrassment ammunition for the next week at school, the lads strutting their stuff are going to take some terrible stick from their mates but it’s gotta be a good way to impress the girls. As the evening went on more people flocked around the temporary arena, hopefully they will check out the local shops in the next few days and buy some clothes to boost local trade. It was a bit of a gamble moving to a bigger display area but it paid off and allowed much more freedom of movement, bring on the next show.