Tenerife Carnaval on the Tele

Many of you not in the Canary Islands may be interested in discovering what our spectacular annual Carnaval is all about and, thanks to the international channel of our local TV station, tvCanaria, I think you should be able to see for yourselves.

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, February 22 sees what I believe is the biggest event with the widest appeal - that of the Gala for the Selection of the Carnaval Queen 2006.

The truly magnificent, outrageous and enormous, colorful costumes are well worth seeing and you really don't need to understand Spanish to be able to appreciate them.

Locally, this is being shown live at 9.30 p.m. On the international channel, it appears that it will be going out later, at 01.30 a.m. GMT (i.e. Thursday morning). That would equate to 2.30 a.m. in Central Europe, but still appear to be 9.30 p.m. in Venezuela where the broadcast is primarily aimed, 8.30 p.m. US Eastern.

You should be able to look up the details of Wednesday's programming here, once it is published.

In Europe, you can find tvCanaria on Astra:

Satélite: ASTRA 1E
Diameter of antena: Canarias 90 cm, Europe 60 cm.
Transpondedor: 34
Frecuencia: 10.979 MHz
Polarización: Vertical
Symbol Rate: 22.000
FEC: 5/6

In America, via Hispasat:

Satélite: Hispasat 1C
Posición orbital: 30º W
Download frequency: 12.172 MHz
Polaridad: Horizontal
Symbol Rate: 27.500
FEC: 3/4
Service name: C. Canarias TV

More details of frequencies and stuff here.

I am assuming all of that will mean something to those of you who have satellite TV. Does it show that I do not? I shall be watching, via a wire coat hanger! No, I'm not kidding. :)

On Tuesday, February 28th (Shrove Tuesday), the "Coso" Apoteosis del Carnaval or main parade will be taking place and I am certain this one will be televised internationally as well. The parade begins at 4 p.m. GMT in Santa Cruz, but I don't yet know the timing of the international broadcast.

If you get to watch any of this from "the outside", do let us know what you think of it and, if you can explain this better than I can, please do so by posting a comment!