Bling and bottoms are back at Aguilas carnival

Carnival report 2015: Everything that glitters is indeed gold in Águilas this year

Carnival is well underway in Águilas and the first grand parade took place on Sunday evening, 33 different groups painting the streets with a succession of vibrant colours and infectious music.

Águilas is the trendsetter, and can always be relied upon to deliver innovation and bold creativity in its costume designs, so if you want to see what the rest of the region will be wearing next Spring head off and make a few notes on the latest fashions in Águilas.

This year bling is back, glitter and glitz defying the economic crisis to put a bit of sparkle and zest back into the gloom and doom which has pervaded the last few years of the Spanish economy, golden glittered bodysuits, caskets of tempting gold coinage, and sparkling silver bodices glittered and shimmered in time to the music, dazzling the estimated 100,000 people who packed every scrap of space along the route to enjoy the procession.

As well as glamour and glitz, humour is another essential ingredient of the Águilas processions, critical political comment abounding ( goodness knows, there’s plenty of material ricocheting around the media this year!). La Rata Loca ( the mad rat peña) stood out as King Juan Carlos went off on an elephant hunting expedition, a virtually naked goddess with a stunning body ( it took about half an hour to edit the 5,000 photos taken by the roving reporter of this particular peña) standing atop the elephant before all the mad rats ( also semi-naked but some of them in slightly less trim condition than their female counterpart)  scuttled out of the bathing cubicle of the Royal family to perform a humorous dance using bin lids to cover their modesty.

Further back in the route Luis Bárcenas and Princess Cristina were tossing bags of money in the air and dispensing free Cuerva( the alcoholic drink of the Águilas carnival) to the watching public and the youngsters had a great time on the moving slide.

Bottoms also made a comeback, several peñas sporting costumes which gave the distinct impression that they were wearing very little other than their modesty when viewed from behind.
As usual, the glory of Águilas is in the detail.

The Peña Anámnesis were outstanding, wearing white and echoing the theme of scorpions, the Mussona this year being from this creative and exciting peña. Costumes incorporated shells, interwoven with natural esparto grass and natural fibres, faces softened with white dusting and eyes distorted with coloured lens, the whole topped off with an impressive sting in the tail.

Other peñas entwined vibrant cords to make textured and gloriously coloured bodices, piled heads high with fruit and glorious samba colours, painted their faces with a peppering of glittering jewels, donned vibrant pink wigs and teetered beneath elaborate creations of confectionary,or simply opted for abundant feathers in a series of stunning colour creations.

There are still three more parades to enjoy, two featuring the Águilas peñas and the Friday night parade welcoming peñas from not only other parts of the region, but also other areas of Spain, which usually includes some large-scale costumes:

Tuesday 17th February
6pm, 2nd Grand parade with floats and carriages

 Friday 20th February
6pm. Third parade. XX Concurso Nacional de Comparsas Foráneas, Competition of external comparsas, which are all the peñas from other areas invited to take part in the carnival. Some of these are fabulous and come from right across Spain. This is a good parade to come to, but only includes the peñas from outside of Águilas, not the Águilas peñas themselves.
Location: Avenida Juan Carlos I y Calle Rey Carlos III.
Midnight  National drag queen competition

Saturday 21st February
6pm : Fourth and last parade of carriages and floats
 Location: Avenida Juan Carlos I y Calle Rey Carlos III.
Following the parade, Don Carnal is seized whilst in the Plaza de Espana, and taken down to Poniente beach where he is executed in grand style on the bonfire, well, an effigy is, followed by an enormous carnival fireworks display to end  the celebrations.