Festival de Tenerife started on Tuesday, 2 October with a presentation party held at Pescadería [Fishmonger’s] del Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The event was attended by actors Josep María Pou and Isabel Ordaz, who play leading roles in the shows included in this second year of the festival.

Canarian comedians Abubukaka played master of ceremonies with an amusing show which tried to “sell the fish”, that is, the Festival programme. The event was also attended by the President of Cabildo, Carlos Alonso; the Island Director for Culture, José Luis Rivero, and the mayors of the cities of Santa Cruz and La Laguna: José Manuel Bermúdez and José Alberto Díaz, whose municipalities are host to all the shows this year. The festival starts on Thursday, 4th October. 

Carlos Alonso stated that “at the Cabildo we have always been in favour of long-term culture and internationalization”. Cultural agents of the island were also present at the party. Josep Maria Pou recalled that precisely that day was the 50th anniversary of his first stage performance and recognised that “I always have butterflies and that’s because we feel responsibility for the audience”. The Catalan actor will be in Tenerife in December to perform Moby Dick.

On her part, Isabel Ordaz also wanted to be at the opening of Festival de Tenerife. “I didn’t want to miss it, I wanted to give my support to the festival as a whole”, she pointed out. She’ll be back on the Island to perform He nacido para verte sonreír [I was born to see you smile] on 2 and 3 November at Teatro Guimerá.

The 2nd Festival de Tenerife has a wide and varied programme of theatre, dance, opera and circus, including street shows. Santa Cruz de Tenerife and La Laguna will enjoy 41 performances of 26 different national and international shows, including Canarian performers. In addition to Pou and Ordaz, the programme includes other great figures of the Spanish stage such as Toni Acosta, Pablo Derqui or Celso Albelo.

The first show is Luz de farol [Street Lamps] dance pieces created by Canarian dancers around street lamp lights. The show is starting in La Laguna On Thrusday, 4th at 9:00 pm with Flavio Miranda in Plaza Doctor Olivera; at 9:15 pm with Carlota Mantecón in Plaza de la Concepción and then Judith García Rojas and Juan Carlos Baeza at 9:30 pm in Calle Viana.

At the weekend, actor Albert Boadella will play himself in El sermón del bufón [The buffoon’s sermon] on 5 & 6 October at Teatro Guimerá. On Sunday, 7th La Laguna’s Teatro Leal welcomes Zenit, by Catalan company Els Joglars, a critical view of the path the media is going down. This is the programme of a festival that will close on 15 December.