Preparations for Carnaval

Whilst we were all busy stuck inside revising and sitting exams, the rest of Cádiz was busy preparing for Carnaval. As the Christmas lights were taken down they were replaced with different ones that are more befitting for the Carnaval theme. There are some crazy spirals with witches, creepy clown faces and what appear to be cats among them, along with more generic designs. The city has also been plastered with Carnaval de Cádiz 2013 posters from the local council, but also from individual venues advertising their Carnaval events.

Shops began to stock up on silly string, hairspray, face paint and of course fancy dress costumes. The larger supermarkets and shops such as El Corte Ingles have whole sections dedicated to Carnaval, which really helped to get us excited for it. The exhibit in El Corte Ingles was particularly interesting, it combined costume sales with some form of Carnaval art exhibition including some very extravagant dresses which was really interesting to look around.

The biggest changes of all were the introduction of port-a-loos which seemed to spring up all over the Old Town, some of them seem rather sophisticated. There were also fences erected around the trees in Plaza de Espana, perhaps to try and keep people from climbing them. The most striking change was the stages that have popped up in the squares around Cádiz, there is a giant one in San Antonio which has been decorated with paintings of Cádiz and advertisement on the front, the stage is flanked by two large screens and television cameras have also appeared, this stage is guarded night and day by security. There is also a stage in Barrio de Vina, as a lot of events will be going on there too.

Thanks to an advertisement we saw on one of the big screens outside the train station we knew there was a Carnaval de Cádiz app, which is proving to be really useful. We downloaded it and it has been updated with a detailed timetable of what events are happening where and there is also a section where the Cádiz council will upload videos of the highlights of Cádiz after the events for anyone who missed anything. I would highly recommend downloading this app if you can, it has been invaluable to us, we wouldn’t have a clue what was going on without it, as the timetable isn’t so easy to come across, although someone has now posted a copy on the ESN Facebook page and my landlady Ana has e-mailed us a copy with some advice so that we don’t miss out.

Over the past few weeks there has also been an number of costumed marching bands practising across the city, so listen out for them as they are always worth a look – very entertaining. There are also choirs practising, there was what seemed like a competition for choirs going on in Plaza de San Fransisco  the other week that also had free food and drink being  handed out, although we didn’t really understand what was going on it was still fun to go and watch it.

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