Torrevieja Carnival
Each year, dozens of comparsas (carnival groups) parade through the heart of Torrevieja, a mobilisation of more than 2000 people parading, dancing, and above all, living the Carnival, our town's party par excellence. It is they who bring passion, colour, rhythm, and life to the streets of the city of salt. Thanks to these people, Torrevieja vibrates with a UNIQUE, SPECIAL, and MAGICAL Carnival, different from all those around us, making it a benchmark for this celebration every year.
All of this led to the «Carnaval de Torrevieja» being declared of Provincial Tourist Interest in 2012, and in 2021, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it a Festival of Autonomous Tourist Interest within the Valencian Community.
From the Cultural Association of the Torrevieja Carnival, we want to share our love for our Carnival with everyone through this website; making it accessible, immediate, and current.
SCHEDULE
«Torrevieja Carnival 2026»
ADVERTISING POSTER
«Torrevieja Carnival 2026»
Documentaries
«Carnival of Torrevieja»
Torrevieja Carnival 2025
Torrevieja Carnival 2024
Torrevieja Carnival 2023
Torrevieja Carnival 2022
Torrevieja Carnival 2020
NEWS
EXCEPTIONAL AMENDMENT TO THE RULES FOR THE 2027 ADULT QUEEN ELECTION
The Torrevieja Carnival organising committee has approved a series of exceptional measures for the 2027 Adult Queen Election, following the lack of candidates. These include, on an exceptional basis, allowing the participation of candidates who were not selected in previous years, and extending the registration deadline to 11 April.
RULES FOR THE ELECTION OF THE QUEENS AND KING OF THE 2027 TORREVIEJA CARNIVAL HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED
The Torrevieja Carnival Cultural Association has officially published the rules governing the selection of the Adult Queen, Children’s Queen and King of the 2027 Torrevieja Carnival
JURY MINUTES «TORREVIEJA CARNIVAL GRAND PARADE COMPETITION 2026»
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THE EVENTS OF THE TORREVIEJA CARNIVAL
The Torrevieja Carnival is a festival organised by the Asociación Cultural Carnaval de Torrevieja, with the collaboration of the City Council's Fiestas Department, which fills the city with events for around 30 days between January and March and keeps up the activity throughout the year. This page describes each of the events that make up the programme: what they are, where they are held, who takes part and what makes them special. The figures and data correspond to the latest editions published on this website (mainly 2026) and each event links to the news stories that document it.
The specific dates for each edition are published in the official programme for that year
PRE-CARNIVAL EVENTS
The Torrevieja Carnival does not only happen on the carnival days when the city fills with parades and galas: it is the result of work that the Asociación Cultural Carnaval de Torrevieja, the comparsas and everyone else who is part of the festival carry out over the twelve months of the year, with barely a break between one edition and the next. While the public enjoys a few weeks of celebration, behind the scenes there are meetings, designs, rehearsals, arrangements and decisions that begin almost as soon as the previous Carnival ends.
Before the first date of the programme is even announced, the royal court that will represent the festival has already been chosen, the poster announcing it has been unveiled, the competition rules have been published, and the name of Torrevieja has been carried to trade fairs and showcases outside the city. Each of these steps has its own process, its own protagonists and its own timeline, and together they are what make it possible for everything to be ready to hit the streets once February arrives.
ELECTION OF QUEENS AND KINGS
Every spring the Association publishes the rules, candidacies for Queen, King and Child Queen are submitted, and the reign for the following year is chosen. It is a process that involves the comparsas, who put forward their candidates, and that includes get-together days with the Association. In 2026 the rules were published in March and the reign of the 2027 Carnival was chosen in April. The queens have been presented since 1992, the child queens since 1997, and in recent years they have been joined — with great success in the number of candidacies put forward — by the figure of the King of Carnival.
QUEENS & KINGS
Discover the women and men who have led the Torrevieja Carnival. Gallery of the Senior and Junior Queens and Kings.
COMPARSAS AND THEIR MEMBERS
If there is anyone who keeps the Torrevieja Carnival going all twelve months of the year, it is the comparsas. Large or small, long-established or newly formed, they are the true protagonists of the festival: each one brings together dozens of people who devote much of their free time to carrying forward a collective project that is only seen on the streets for a few weeks, but is built throughout the whole year. Alongside them, smaller groups also take part, entered in the groups category, as do people who choose to experience the Carnival on their own, entering the competitions individually.
COMPARSAS
The work of a comparsa begins long before the Carnival dates are even announced: the theme for that year's costume has to be decided, the outfits designed, fabrics sourced and sewn, headdresses, floats and props built, choreography rehearsed and the whole performance prepared for its presentation to the judges and the public. It is skilled, team-based work that combines the creativity of the designers with the hours of sewing, painting and assembly put in by those who make the costumes, and the persistence of those who rehearse week after week so that everything is ready by February.
This dedication is why the Parade Contest recognises comparsas not only for their overall costume theme, but through categories that assess different aspects of that work — make-up, staging, creativity, imagination and costume design — and why every year Torrevieja welcomes with open arms comparsas from other towns who have likewise spent their year preparing what they present here. Without this effort, sustained over months by people who do it voluntarily and out of love for this festival, the Torrevieja Carnival would not be possible.
ADVERTISING POSTER
Each edition has its own poster, which is unveiled publicly months before the festival. In 2025, for example, the poster for the following edition was unveiled at the Paseo de Vista Alegre, at the end of the Summer Parade, together with the presentation of the new Kings and Queens.
ADVERTISING POSTER
Discover some of the announcement posters that have been part of the history of the Torrevieja Carnival
RULES AND ENTRIES
The Association publishes the rules for the competitions (Parade Contest, Visiting Comparsas Contest, National Comparsas and Chirigotas Contest and Drag Queen Gala) and opens the registration period months in advance, so that comparsas and participants can prepare their costumes and designs.
FITUR
In recent years a delegation from the Torrevieja Carnival has attended the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR) in Madrid every January, together with the City Council and, in previous editions, the Costa Blanca Board of the Alicante Provincial Council. In 2026 the Drag Queen Gala was presented there and Eduardo Navarrete was named Ambassador of the Carnival, in recognition of his work promoting the festival. In previous editions Torrevieja comparsas have also paraded along Callao street in Madrid.
THE OPENING OF THE CARNIVAL
Carnival Get-Together
It is the popular prologue to the big days. In recent years it has brought together more than a thousand participants in home-made, inventive costumes, who parade through the city centre accompanied by brass bands, from Plaza de la Constitución to the Barrio de La Punta, where prizes are awarded for the best costumes, in a day of festive fellowship among the comparsas.
OPENING CEREMONY GALA AND GOLDEN SHIELD AWARD
This is the official opening ceremony, held at the Teatro Municipal. Plaza Miguel Hernández is transformed every year into a themed stage with a red carpet and photocall (in 2026, "Cinema: lights, camera and carnival"; in 2025, "Timeless tales"), along which neighbours, visitors, comparsas and brass bands parade, many of them in costume. Inside, a video summary of the previous Carnival is screened, narrated by its own protagonists, and the Golden Shield, the highest distinction awarded by the Association to people recognised for their contribution to the Torrevieja Carnival, is presented, and a local or visiting speaker gives the official opening address that kicks off the festival. Recent speakers include Susi Caramelo (2026), Jorge Cremades (2025) and Sara Escudero (2024).
GOLDEN SHIELD
Coronation Gala of the Carnival Kings and Queens
Also held at the Teatro Municipal, with both 2026 sessions sold out. The outgoing Kings and Queens bid farewell to the public and the new Kings and Queens present their costumes before receiving sashes and crowns in the presence of the authorities and representatives of the city's other festivals.
THE BIG DAYS
Drag Queen Gala «Ciudad de Torrevieja»
It is held at the Auditorio Internacional and in 2026 reached its 18th edition (7 February, preceded by a pre-party with music, a photocall and local DJs). It brings together top-level artists from the national drag scene and has been presented at FITUR as an inclusive event with national reach. Its origins lie in an initiative of the 2007 Board of Directors, which launched the first gala at the request of that year's Golden Shield winners.
DRAG QUEENS
National Comparsas and Chirigotas Contest «Ciudad de Torrevieja»
It is held at the Teatro Municipal de Torrevieja or at the Sala Sinfónica of the Auditorio Internacional. Chirigotas and comparsas from different towns compete with repertoires of copla, humour and witty social commentary before a specialist jury that assesses performance, musical tuning, staging and wit. The first prize has carried the name of Loles Vilella since 2016, in tribute to a Torrevieja local heavily involved with the Carnival. In 2026 it was won by the local chirigota «Los Sangochaos».
CHIRIGOTAS
Parade Contest
This is the central event. Children's and adult comparsas, along with groups and individual participants, parade down Calle Ramón Gallud with newly created costumes, choreography and music. Prizes are awarded by category (in 2026: Make-up, Staging, Creativity, Fantasy and Costume for the adult comparsas, plus children's, groups and individual categories), judged by a panel of professionals from design, fashion, make-up and dance. There is also a prize dedicated to Mari Conchi Baños, for the funniest costume, in tribute to one of the women most devoted to the Carnival. In 2026 the 38th Parade was held.
Visiting Comparsas Parade Contest
Every year comparsas from other municipalities, especially from the Region of Murcia, are invited to show off their costumes in Torrevieja. In 2026 more than fifty applications were received and twelve comparsas were selected, many of which debuted their costumes here before presenting them in their own towns.
Night Parade, the «craziest night»
Comparsas, groups and individual participants once again parade down Calle Ramón Gallud to Plaza de la Constitución, this time without the pressure of competition along the route, with hundreds of costumed people among the public. It concludes with the awards gala next to the Town Hall.
A CARNIVAL FOR EVERYONE, OF ALL AGES
School Carnival
A non-competitive school parade organised by the Association. In its seventh edition (2026) more than five hundred children from eleven schools took part, parading along Calle Ramón Gallud to the Paseo de Vista Alegre, where treats were handed out. There is no jury or prizes: the aim is for pupils to experience the Carnival from the inside.
Carnival for Older People
A celebration at the «La Macro» Municipal Leisure Centre, with dancing, music and a costume contest for individuals, couples and groups. In 2026 it brought together more than four hundred people, over a hundred of whom took part in the contest.
Animal Carnival Contest
A parade of costumed pets with prizes for the best individual and group costumes. Its 6th edition took place in 2026, with 21 participants.
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