Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the world's largest carnivals, drawing over 200,000 people to the Canary Island capital each February for two weeks of spectacular costumes, music, dance, and celebration. The carnival's centrepiece is the election of the Carnival Queen, for which competitors wear extraordinary sculptural costumes weighing hundreds of kilograms, requiring small cranes to move. The 1987 edition, held while the carnival was still technically banned under Francoist restrictions and officially renamed a 'Winter Festival', became legendary in Spain's cultural history.