It’s carnival season around Caleta de Vélez, Spain, where we are house-sitting. I went to the carnival at a nearby town, Vélez Malaga, for the local experience.
The carnival consists of local people dressing up in imaginative and outlandish costumes and dancing in a parade along the streets – it’s a lively and colourful show!
The carnival was entirely a local event – not intended for tourists. I didn’t recognise any other tourists, so I may have been the only one!
No particular theme was evident – some of the outfits were broadly Spanish, such as a ‘traditional’ horse-riding couple; men representing a local Restaurant, El Convento, dressed as matadors (I think); and men dressed as female flamenco dancers.
However, there were also woad-masked Picts in kilts playing bagpipe music; female NASA astronauts, with rocket backpacks and space children; a swarm of dancing bees; and costume that seemed to be nothing more than just bright, colourful, and extravagant.
The Picts would stop periodically, hold back the parade, and then do a screaming, sword-waving charge forward into the space they had created!
Nobody is taking themselves too seriously, here!
I’m guessing this is Bo Peep, out with her father and without her sheep. She was so cute and earnest!
These are harlequins with back-pack paper streamer blowers; they were accompanied by a cannon that blew out confetti.
Here’s a short video of them in action:
They made such a mess, but I went back to Vélez Malaga a few days later to explore the town and it was all cleaned up.
Here’s a short video of some of the other highlights of the Vélez Malaga Carnaval:
The carnival was loud, colourful, messy, and great fun!
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