Costa Almeria carnival preparations well underway in Vera

PREPARATIONS for Vera’s carnival are well underway, the celebration programme promising a few novelties.
Festivities councillor Amparo Garcia has revealed the traditional carnival dance with live music at one of the municipality’s most prestigious venues has been reintroduced this year and some changes have been made to the procession routes.
The carnival fun will get going at 5pm on Saturday 22 with a procession of carnival troupes in costumes from last year. The parade will start out from the municipal sports pavillion and end up at the Plaza Mayor, where there will be the proclamation announcing the official start of the celebrations.
The children’s procession will on the Monday afternoon, with the participation of the local schools’ parents’ association’s junior carnival troupes. Again the starting point will be the sports pavillion, but this time it will end up in the Paseo Miguel de Cervantes, where there will be attractions for children from Thursday February 20 until Sunday March 1.
On the same day there will be an early evening competition of traditional face masks on the town streets, with a €50 prize for the best junior and €100 for the best adult.
This year there will also be €50 for every group of 10 or more in traditional masks. The condition is to register beforehand with the Casa de la Cultura and to have participated in the processions.
On Tuesday 25 it will be the tinies’ turn, the children from the Campanillas infants’ school starring in the day’s parade.
The grande carnival finale will be the big procession on Friday 28, which is also the Dia de Andalucia. The parade will end up at the Calle del Mar, where temporary seating will be set up to allow the public to enjoy the different troupes’ dances and performances.
Any group wanting to take part in the processions has until Friday February 14 to sign up at Vera Town Hall. Participating troupes have to meet a set of requirements as set out on the local authority website vera.es.