The Grand Gala for the Election of the Queen is the most spectacular event of the Santa Cruz Carnival and the one with the widest reach: it is broadcast on television across Spain and to other countries. The candidates parade across the stage in fantasías, costumes several metres high weighing hundreds of kilos, the result of months of work by designers and workshops.
The gala
The gala is traditionally held on a Wednesday, a few days before the big weekend of the street Carnival. The candidates, presented beforehand at the City Hall, parade one by one while the award-winning groups from the contests perform. A jury chooses the Carnival Queen and her Maids of Honour, and the mayor hands the sceptre to the winner. From then on the Queen presides over the festival's events, tours the city in the Announcement Parade and the Coso, and represents the Carnival at tourism fairs. The gala's venue has changed over the years: from the Teatro Guimerá to the bullring, the Plaza de España and, since the nineties, the exhibition centre.
What is a fantasía
The fantasía is the candidate's costume: a structure of metal and lightweight materials covered with feathers, rhinestones, fabrics and ornaments, usually weighing between 150 and 200 kilos and moving on wheels. Each fantasía has a name and a theme, and is signed by a designer. It is so expensive that each candidate needs a sponsor, usually a company or institution, which she represents (in our archive you will see “Represents...” next to each Queen). The largest ever was “Pachá entra en mi sueño”, by Carlos Nieves, worn by Mónica García Brito in 1993: it measured about 6 metres high and 6.5 wide and came first Maid of Honour.
The designers
Behind every crown there is a designer, and some have dominated entire eras. In our archive each award-winning fantasía links to its designer's page, where you can see all their Queens, Maids of Honour and the costumes they created for murgas, comparsas or rondallas. See the list of designers or the figures box, with those who have won the most crowns. Some innovations are remembered for years, such as Willy Jorge's in 2010, who accompanied his candidate with two drag queens, something unprecedented at the gala.
A brief history of the Queens
The first Queen in our archive is Onagra Díaz Lorenzo, in 1935, with the fantasía “Vampiresa 1933”. After 1936 there was no election for almost three decades, until it returned in 1965 as part of the Winter Festivals. In 2021, with no Carnival because of the pandemic, a “Guardian of the Sceptre” was chosen by telephone vote among former Queens: Naomi Cabrera, Queen in 2019.
Children's Queen and Senior Queen
The Carnival has two more crowns with their own galas. The Children's Queen has been chosen since 1975 (the first was Ruth Cristina Arteaga, with “Pavo Real”), and her scaled-down fantasías rival the adults' in spectacle. The Senior Queen, formerly called Queen of the Third Age, has been chosen since 1984, when Josefina Olivera Gómez won with “Blancanieves de la Tercera Edad”.
Sources: Carnaval Chicharrero awards archive (official register of award winners of the City Council up to 2011, press and Wikipedia afterwards) and the Wikipedia article “Carnaval de Santa Cruz de Tenerife”.