Gran Canaria Carnival 2027: dates, parades, and the two carnivals on the island

Gran Canaria Carnival 2027 doesn’t just have one date; it has two! Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is celebrating from January 22 to February 28, with the Drag Gala on Friday, February 19, and the Grand Parade on Saturday, February 20. Then, the International Carnival of Maspalomas kicks off from March 2 to March 14. There are just two days between the end of one and the start of the other!

Here’s the calendar for the whole island, what’s different in 2027 compared to any other year, how the two big carnivals really differ, how to get between them, and how to fit both into one trip.

When is Gran Canaria Carnival 2027?

Carnival Tuesday is on February 9th, and it’s not the big day!

Carnival Tuesday in 2027 falls on February 9: Easter is on March 28, Ash Wednesday is February 10, and the Tuesday before that is this one. In Gran Canaria, that date doesn’t mean much at all.

Las Palmas keeps February 9 as a local holiday and fills it with a kids’ parade and daytime carnival, but moves its three main events — Drag Gala, Grand Parade, and Burial of the Sardine — to right in the middle of Lent, between February 19 and 28. Maspalomas totally ignores the liturgical calendar and celebrates in March, just like every year. And across the sea, Santa Cruz de Tenerife has moved its festivities to February 23.

A common mistake is booking “carnival week” and finding out that the gala you wanted to see was ten days before or two weeks after. On this island, carnival isn’t just a week: it’s almost a two-month season.

🌙 How to calculate the date of carnival and why it changes every year

The island’s calendar, from town to town

Be honest about what’s happening: as of September 22, 2026, only Las Palmas, Gáldar, and Maspalomas have official dates for 2027. The other municipalities will publish their dates between January and February, and we’ll update this page as soon as they come out. The rows marked as forecasts follow the 2026 pattern, not a schedule.

Here’s a fun little secret that almost no one tells you: in Gran Canaria, you can enjoy carnival for six weekends in a row, from the end of January to the end of March. You just need to know which town to hit up each weekend.

Las Palmas: 38 days and six weekends

The capital carnival of 2027 runs from January 22 to February 28: thirty-eight days, six weekends packed with events, and five weeks of rehearsals in between. The theme is “Music”, chosen by public vote over climate change and sci-fi, and the poster is “Musa”, created by Ernesto Santana and Nabil Concepción, also voted on by the public in August 2026.

And 2027 isn’t just any year: the City Council has completely reshuffled the calendar. Here are the changes that affect you if you’re coming:

Translated: the Drag Gala, the Grand Parade, and the Burial of the Sardine are happening on three different, non-consecutive weekends. Here are the dates you’ll want to mark down:

Two honest warnings. First: out of this whole program, the City Council has only published one time, which is 21:00 for the Drag Gala. The rest of the schedules will be known in January. Second: the route for the Grand Parade is still not official. There’s been talk of a shorter route to gather the crowd, but sources don’t agree and we’re not going to sketch out a street that might change later on.

Maspalomas International Carnival: March 2 to 14

The south goes on its own schedule and shows up when they’ve already swept the streets in Las Palmas. The Maspalomas International Carnival 2027 runs from March 2 to 14, with the theme “A World of Toys”, and its heart is, as always, the Yumbo Shopping Center in Playa del Inglés.

Two dates you can lock in now:

• Friday, March 12: Tourist Day, a local holiday in San Bartolomé de Tirajana. It’s the day when the whole town comes together to celebrate all the visitors!
• Saturday, March 13, around 5:00 PM: the Grand Parade (forecast). This date fits with the schedule from previous years, but the City Hall hasn’t announced it yet. There’s also a chance it could change: in 2026, the parade was postponed by a week due to storm Therese. We’ll check back on this page in January.

The rest of the program — the Drag Gala in Maspalomas, the Queen’s Gala, the Carnival in the Sun, the Burial of the Sardine down south — will be published between January and February. When it’s out, you’ll find it right here.

The allegories of 2027: “The Music” and “A World of Toys”

If you’re coming in costume, here’s the first thing you need to know: each carnival has an annual theme that sets the vibe for the floats, drag outfits, parades, and stage design. In 2027, there are two themes, and both were chosen by the public.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: “Music”. The City Council presented it as the universal language, after a public vote where it competed with climate change and science fiction. It covers everything: genres, decades, instruments, scenes. In 2026, the theme was “Las Vegas” and in 2025, the Olympic party.

Maspalomas: “A World of Toys”. It was chosen by an open vote among residents, visitors, and tourists: 402 votes out of 680, which is 59.1%, ahead of “Marine Worlds” (247) and “The Digital Age” (31). 32% more people participated than the previous year. It’s literally the carnival chosen by its tourists.

What makes the Gran Canaria carnival so special?

Tenerife has the biggest carnival in the Canary Islands. Gran Canaria has four other things, and none of them are across the sea.

The Drag Gala: the most-watched show of the year in the Canary Islands

The first official Drag Gala in Las Palmas took place in 1998, on a Thursday afternoon at Santa Catalina Park. It was scheduled mid-week so if it flopped, it wouldn’t be noticed too much. Drag Heaven took home the crown. Nowadays, each contestant gets three minutes on stage to showcase their fantasy based on the year’s theme, and the result is this:

It was the most-watched program of the year on Televisión Canaria. And it’s important to get its origin right because it’s often told halfway: the seed is in the south. The “Transcarnatival” in Maspalomas had been celebrated before, and in 1997 a municipal delegation from Las Palmas came down to see it; the San Bartolomé de Tirajana Town Hall held its own drag contest in 1986. What Las Palmas did was turn it into the television event it is today, to the point that Santa Cruz de Tenerife created its own Dragnaval in 2024.

The Burial of the Sardine is burned on the beach

On Sunday, February 28, the capital’s carnival wraps up on the sand. A parody funeral procession winds through the city, ending with the burning of a giant sardine on Las Canteras beach, with the Atlantic behind it.

To give you an idea of the scale: in 2026, the parade left from the Club Natación Metropole and wrapped up at the promenade near Gran Canaria street, with around 25,000 people, a five-meter wood and cork sardine, and about 270 kilos of fireworks. It arrived almost an hour late, which is another handy tip: here, schedules are just a guideline, and it’s way more fun to enjoy the parade as it goes by than to wait at the finish line.

The big crowds are no longer at Parque Santa Catalina

Here’s the info no tourist guide will give you, and it’ll save you from searching for an old photo. The locals around the park fought for years, and in 2015, a court-approved agreement was reached that generally bans big crowds and concerts in Parque Santa Catalina. There are some strict exceptions: only the celebrations at the end of the big galas — the Queen and the Drag — are allowed, and they can’t go past midnight with a sound limit of 60 decibels at the building facades.

What does it mean for you? That the carnival night in Las Palmas spreads through the Puerto neighborhood, from Santa Catalina to Manuel Becerra, instead of being concentrated in just one square. There’s a community initiative asking to renegotiate the agreement, and the City Council seems open to reviewing it, so we’ll revisit this in January. In the meantime, the party’s still on: you just have to walk a bit more.

Maspalomas is the international and proudly LGTBIQ+ carnival!

In the south, the street language and crowd change. Yumbo is the epicenter of the island’s LGBTQ+ scene and the heart of the Maspalomas carnival: galas, parties, and nightlife, with a German, British, Scandinavian, and Dutch crowd that you won’t see in the same proportion in Las Palmas.

And it’s a party that doesn’t stop in March: the south celebrates the Winter Pride in Maspalomas from November 2 to 8, 2026, with temperatures over twenty degrees and the same vibrant atmosphere.

Las Palmas or Maspalomas: which one’s your vibe?

Choose quickly:

• Catch the televised Drag Gala and the urban parade → Las Palmas, February 19 and 20.
• Head to the international and LGTBIQ+ vibe → Maspalomas, in March. Not February: that’s the most common mistake on the whole island.
• Got kids with you? → Las Palmas, Tuesday, February 9: kids’ parade, daytime carnival, and a local holiday.
• You’re gonna want one picture that sums it all up → Burial of the Sardine, Sunday, February 28, on the beach.
• You’re heading to the biggest parade → the Grand Carnival Parade of Maspalomas, Saturday, March 13 (forecast).
• Want a city vibe along with the party? → Las Palmas: museums, Vegueta, surf, and tapas whenever your hangover calls for it.

Getting around between Las Palmas and Maspalomas

The two carnivals are about fifty kilometers away. You can get there by bus, no car needed, using two Global lines:

🚨 Bus line 91 doesn’t go to Maspalomas. This is a super common mistake you’ll see in blogs and forums: the 91 goes straight to Puerto de Mogán, passing through Arguineguín and Puerto Rico. If you hop on thinking you’re heading to Playa del Inglés, you’ll end up halfway across the island!

You can get there straight from the airport: the 60 line heads up to Las Palmas and the 66 goes down to Maspalomas.

The ticket costs around €6-9 each way; check the current fare at guaguasglobal.com before you travel. If you’re heading south more than once, the TransGC card gives you a discount on top-ups between 20% and 40% depending on the amount, with a minimum of €15.

And now for the honest part, which almost nobody shares: the late-night return. On a regular day, there’s no public bus running from the south between 11:00 PM and 3:33 AM. During the big carnival nights in Maspalomas, Global sets up a special night service from San Fernando (Avenida de Tirajana) to San Telmo, which in 2026 operated from 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM. This info is usually posted a few days ahead, so if you plan to head down to Yumbo at night, count on that service or a taxi, and be sure to check the schedules the week before.

Getting around Las Palmas is a breeze: the night bus service Red Luna runs from 11 PM to 5 AM, and its L2 line takes you right by Santa Catalina, which is where the parties wrap up.

Two carnivals in one trip: the window to 2027

Here’s this year’s calendar scoop! The Burial of the Sardine in Las Palmas is on Sunday, February 28 and the Maspalomas Carnival kicks off on Tuesday, March 2. Just two days apart!

The good window: from Friday, February 26 to Saturday, March 6. You’ll catch the big concerts from the last nights, the Sardine at the beach, and head south for the kick-off of Maspalomas, the candidates’ presentation, and the Grand Lady Gala. Eight nights, one base, two carnivals.

The alternative, if you’re all about a huge parade: from March 8 to 14, for the big week in Maspalomas, with Tourist Day on Friday the 12th and the Grand Parade on Saturday the 13th (forecast). But you’ll miss out on all of Las Palmas.

What doesn’t exist is the week that hits both parades: the one in Las Palmas is on February 20, and the one in Maspalomas is on March 13, three weeks later. If you want to catch both, you’ll need two trips or a really long vacation.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Gran Canaria Carnival 2027

• When’s the Drag Gala?
• Can I check out both carnivals?
• How do I get to Maspalomas?
• Is there a bus in the early morning?

Experience Carnival 2027 in Gran Canaria!

In Las Palmas, you don’t just hop in a car for carnival: you walk there and back. Our three hostels are right in the city, and we give you the real distances, not the brochure ones — count on about 30% more time on nights when streets are closed off:

• Pura Vida, in Guanarteme, is just a ten-minute walk from Las Canteras and about half an hour from Parque Santa Catalina. It’s the perfect beach base.
• La Isleta Nest is located in the Puerto neighborhood, just about twenty minutes from the Las Canteras area where the sardine is burned, and half an hour from Santa Catalina Park. It’s the best spot for February 28th.
• Las Palmas Nest is located in Vegueta, the historic center. You can get to Parque Santa Catalina by bus, not by walking. But it’s the closest to the San Telmo station, where the direct line 50 to Maspalomas departs: if your plan is to head south, this is your hostel.

We don’t have accommodation in Maspalomas or Playa del Inglés, and we prefer to be upfront about it: for the southern carnival, the best plan is to stay in Las Palmas and take the bus down. It’s about 67 minutes, and during carnival time, it’s way more cost-effective than a night in a hotel in Playa del Inglés.

If you’re staying for both carnivals, the Nest Pass covers our twelve hostels in Tenerife and Gran Canaria for shared dorm beds, and it lets you switch hostels during your stay: just give us a heads-up so we can save your bed.

February and March are peak carnival season, but pretty chill for everything else. The weekends of February 19-20 and 26-28 get booked up first: if you book in October, you get to choose your hostel, but if you wait until January, you’ll be stuck with what’s left.

Fountains

• Las Palmas City Council (lpacarnaval.com) — sneak peek at the 2027 Carnival program
• lpacarnaval.com — “The Music”, the allegory of the Las Palmas Carnival 2027
• San Bartolomé de Tirajana Town Hall — voting for the allegory of the 2027 Maspalomas International Carnival
• Maspalomas International Carnival — official website
• Gáldar Town Hall — Gáldar Carnival Dates 2027
• Official Bulletin of the Canary Islands No. 168 — local holidays for 2027
• Guaguas Global — line 30, Santa Catalina – Faro de Maspalomas
• Guaguas Global — line 50 “Superfaro”, San Telmo – Faro de Maspalomas
• Guaguas Municipales — night line L2
• RTVC — audience for the Drag Queen Gala in Las Palmas 2026
• RTVC — Burial of the Sardine in Las Palmas 2026
• RTVC — unveiling the dates for the Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2027
• Canarias7 — dates for the Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2027
• Canarias7 — dates for the Maspalomas Carnival 2027

Last updated: September 2026. The official programs for Maspalomas and the rest of the island, the schedules for Las Palmas, and the gala prices will be published between January and February 2027; we’ll update this page as soon as they’re confirmed.