Carnival

Carnival in Spain is highly talked about and one of the first recommendations I got from people in my community. Everyone here says you must experience Carnival in Spain and if you can, go to Cadiz. Well, fortunately for me I am living only 2 hours from Cadiz and if you remember it is the first place I visited after arriving in Spain. For the weekend I grabbed my friends, left my valuables behind, and headed to Cadiz for what quite possibly may have been the most rowdy experience of my life. Now that is saying a lot, because I did spend four years in San Francisco attending some of the most entertaining Love, Peace, and Gay Pride Parades.

Carnival in Cadiz is said to be the third largest Carnival celebration in the world (after Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad). Both European jet-setters and locals know and crave the intense energy that invades the city during the ten days leading up to Shrove Tuesday. It seems that everyone within a thousand-mile radius shows up to partake in the fun.

Many visitors like my friends and I, choose to sleep on park benches or stay up all night instead of booking hotel rooms.

From experiencing Cadiz before, it is a quiet and serene city on the Andalusian coast, except when it plays host to Spain's ultimate party. The fun began in the 17th century when the city of Cadiz tried to keep up with the decadent carnival celebrations in Venice and Genoa. Carnival was forbidden when Franco was in power and now it is back, stronger and bigger then ever.

As it often happens in Spain, preparations for Carnival seem a bit last-minute and haphazard, but everything comes together beautifully in the end. Garlands are hung across the tiny, twisting alleys, and street vendors set up their displays of toys and fruit just an hour or two before the party begins. Stages are set up in every plaza for musical acts, comedians and children's performances. And there are also rock concerts featuring some of Spain's most popular groups in the Plaza de Catedral.

Carnival may be the ultimate party all night but for those seeking more conventional pleasure, and for the families, the Carnival roster includes numerous parades, dancing children, exuberant costumes and beauty pageants during the day.

I had an amazing time dressing up with my friends, we flashed backed to 80’s Prom and found fabulous dresses. It was also a blast to see all the other creative and unique costumes that the Spanish come up with. I think a good comparison of the amount of people and the costumes is Halloween in the Castro District of San Francisco. The difference is there is a lot more entertainment and the people don’t get as drunk and out of control as they do on Halloween.