A complete Christmas, in a city that cheerfully celebrates in a pleasant climate, a city with unique attractions for the visitor. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria can boast of having a very special ambiance, different for the tourist who discovers the highest populated city of the Archipelago for the first time during these special dates. The beach, the old town, the colonial quarters, all are mixed in the christmas calendar as venues to celebrate these festivities our way: the schedule includes a great firework display, an open-air concert to welcome 2017, facing the cruise-ship dock, and also the impressive Sand Nativity Scene of Las Canteras Beach that awes hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
Shopping (including local handicraf), restaurants, concerts, and the unavoidable welcoming of the Three Wise Men complete the Christmas plan in the city, a city that will be lit under the colours of 800.000 LEDs that will give light to 73 different events under the slogan "A Whole City", a programme organised by the City of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, its areas of Culture and Tourism, and its different Districts.
New Year's Eve in Santa Catalina
Live music, the 12 bell chimes of New Year, and a display of fireworks will be the key events of the night of December 31st after 11.30pm in Plaza de Canarias -next to Parque Santa Catalina-. Music bands Flash Funk, and Ni Funk ni Fank, along with great DJ’s, will amuse the audience that will gather aroung the Port area to give year 2016 a good farewell and to welcome 2017 until 4.30am. An open-air show where passengers of the cruise-ships that will be berthed in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria will also enjoy. The Town Hall has prepared a gathering and leisure area so that all citizens can enjoy one of the most awaited nights of the Christmas calendar.
Nativity Scenes in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
During these dates, the visitor in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is also offered an additional attraction: our traditional Nativity Scenes like the one at the Town Hall (Vegueta, from December 1st), the Sand Nativity Scene of Las Canteras Beach (impressing hundreds of thousands of visitors every year), and the popular Nativity Scene of Parque San Telmo. To these, and for the second consecutive year, a new one sums up: the Neapolitan Nativity Scene that will be installed at Palacete Rodríguez Quegles.
As for the famous Sand Nativity Scene of Las Canteras Beach, in this occasion presents the works of six sculptors: Canary Islander Jonay Ruiz, Russians Aleksei Diakov and Alexey Shchitov, Belgian Enguerrand David, Italian Leonardo Ugolini, and French Benoît Dutherage, who will give shape -in just one week- seven Scenes of Christmas using two thousand Tons of sand over an area of 75 x 30 metres. Some images will rise up to four metres of height.
Christmas Concerts
Regarding the music offer, the highlights will be the concerts of traditional Canary music by Los Gofiones (Wednesday 21st of December, in Santa Ana Square, Vegueta), La Trova, (next to the Alfredo Kraus Concert Hall, at the west end of Las Canteras Beach) on Friday 23rd, and the concert by folk band Non Trubada (on January 5th, at Parque San Telmo).
The City Symphony Orchestra will participate with several shows. For instance, they will play along with En-Cantadoras in Santa Ana Square on Friday 16th, at 9pm. Students and teachers of the City School of Music, gospel choir MLou, and Vocal Siete band will play in various venues stated in the Christmas Programme of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Shopping, handicraft and restaurants
The visitor will be able to do the Christmas Shoppings in the city. Several Shopping centres in town and the open-air shopping areas of Triana, Mesa y López and the area of Puerto-Canteras, will present their best gift-to-be products. In the highest part of the city, in places like Siete Palmas or the Borough of Schamann, visitors will find a different whilsh attractive offer. Among the various options to find the perfect Christmas gitf in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, another highlight is the traditional Handicraft Fair organised every year by the FEDAC in Parque San Telmo from Monday 2nd of January to the night of the 5th, the Three King's Eve.
These shopping dates will be complemented by a wide restoration offer of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, at the whole Old Town, Las Canteras Beach, Parque Santa Catalina, and Ruiz de Alda street (next to Mesa y López). Eating well, and most of the times al-fresco, is always possible in a cosmopolitan city that is full of activity during Christmas.
The Three Kings
Families, and more specially, hundreds of children will gather like every 5th of January to welcome The Three Kings at 11am at the cruise-ship station of Muelle de Santa Catalina. Later the same day, atfer 5pm, Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, accompanied by their courts, will ride their camels along the streets of the city from the Castle of La Luz to Parque San Telmo, during the long awaited Three Kings' Parade.
Besides, on Three King's Eve, the Calle Mayor de Triana will celebrate a great festive evening, highly acclaimed and watched by locals and visitors. The celebrations are so big that even gets to Carretera del Centro (GC-5), presenting a market where citizens and tourists can do the last shopping of these dates, just between the Old Town of Vegueta and the Modernist Borough of Triana.
* More information at www.lpacultura.com