Fiestas on Tenerife - Festival Internacional del Cuento Los Silos 2009 (Story Telling Festival, Los Silos)

It’s tall tales time in Tenerife again; although there are those who'd say that you can hear tall tales any night of the week in some bars across the island.

These ones are told by professional word weavers. For five days at the beginning of December, storytellers from around the world converge on the charming little town of Los Silos in Isla Baja to enchant locals and visitors with tales of magic and wonder.

The town’s Plaza Nuestra Señora de la Luz, provides the perfect fairy tale backdrop for one of Tenerife’s more spellbinding little fiestas.

Many of this year’s storytellers are from South America, but even if you don’t understand Spanish, the town has such a lovely feel to it and there’s always plenty of things to see which don’t require any translating.

Best days should be Saturday and Sunday.

Dates: 4th to 8th December

Entrance: Many events are free, but there’s a charge for others. See Full Agenda of Events here for more details (In Spanish).

Events on Tenerife - ExpoInfancia 2009, Children’s Fair in Santa Cruz

If anything to do with rugrats makes you go all goo-goo, gaa-gaa then you might be interested in hearing about ExpoInfancia 2009 at the Recinto Ferial (Trade Fair Centre) in Santa Cruz.

The fair covers everything to do with children from clothes to wear when they’re a bulge in the belly to changing the classy sports car for a boring family model and decorating their rooms to arranging parties – I’m not sure if there are any stalls dedicated to how to get rid of them when they’re still a drain on finances long after they should have flown the coop.

If you’re like me and subscribe to the W.C Fields approach to kiddiewinkles, then you’ll probably have something better to do during the 3 days of the fair.

Dates: 20th to 22nd November

Times: 11.00 to 21.00

Entrance: €2

Festivals on Tenerife – 7 Rockas Festival, La Laguna

An eclectic mix of activities awaits anyone who heads into La Laguna this Saturday. The ‘7 Rockas Festival’ is classed as a showcase for rock in its purest state (I’m guessing that you could probably replace ‘pure’ with ‘raw’ here); however, festival events also include master classes in drumming and guitar playing during the morning.

These are followed in the afternoon by air guitar (the one musical instrument that I can actually play), guitar hero, ‘juego de palo’ (traditional stick fighting – your guess is as good as mine about what that has to do with rock music), and rock hairdressers (if these are the same as the ones I’ve seen at Mueca in Puerto de la Cruz, they’re worth going to see just on their own).

The evening sees the real rocky part of the festival get underway with sets from the best rock bands from across the Canarian Archipeligo.
Bands include: Machango (La Palma), Blackened (Lanzarote), Cuerno Cabra & Alea Jacta (Fuerteventura) and Histeria, Nadien and Guerilla Urbana (Tenerife).

Wait a minute, there are some islands missing. I can understand there not being a band from San Borondón (nobody knows how to get in touch with them there), but what about Gran Canaria, La Gomera and El Hierro? Maybe they should rename it '5 Rockas Festival'.

Date: Saturday, 3rd October

Location: IES, Viera y Clavijo, La Laguna

Circus on the Streets of Tenerife – Arona

Look out for strange looking people with big red noses in the plazas in Arona during the first two weeks of August (the obvious joke here is just to easy).

Arona con el Circo sees little bits of circus magic being acted out on the streets around the municipality between the 3rd and 13th of August.

Monday 3rd. 19:00. Variekey. Plaza de la Iglesia, Buzanada.

Martes 4th. 19:00. Variekey. Plaza de la Iglesia, El Fraile.

Wednesday 5th. 19:00. Jesús Rojo Super Magic. Plaza next to the Asociación de Vecinos, Guaza.

Thursday 6th. 19:00. Toby Show. Plaza next to the Centro Cultural, Parque La Reina.

Friday 7th. 21:00. Circo Chino. Plaza de la Iglesia, Los Cristianos.

Saturday 8th. 19:00. Aerflot. Plaza de la Trujilla, Cabo Blanco.

Sunday 9th. 21:00. Aerflot. Ramblas de Las Galletas.

Tuesday 11th. 19:00. Aerflot. Plaza de la Iglesia, Valle San
Lorenzo.

Wednesday 12th. 19:00. Aerflot. Plaza de la Iglesia, La Camella.

Thursday13th. 19:00. Variekey. In the street next to the Asociación de Vecinos, Flor del Sur (Guargacho).

We don’t really know what each of these will involve, but these things are usually good fun, so if you’re in any of the areas above at the times stated have a look out for clowns, jugglers, magicians and acrobats.

Sesame Street comes to La Laguna / El Show de Barrio Sésamo en La Laguna

By now the novelty of the new toys from Tres Reyes must have worn off so why not take the little ones to a bright and bubbly stage show where they laugh, sing, dance and join in with all the antics whilst undergoing subliminal persuasion in the benefits of healthy eating, exercise, sleep and hygiene?
Come to think of it, I know a few adults who could benefit from that…

Super Coco en Acción El Show de Barrio Sésamo

Venue: Pabellón de los Deportes, La Laguna
Dates: 29th January 2009 to 1st February 2009
Time: Thurs 29: 18:00 h
Fri 30: 18:00 h
Saturday 31: 12:00 h, 16:30 h, 19:30 h
Sunday 1: 12:00 h, 16:30 h, 19:30 h
Price: Tickets €20, €25 and €35 available through the Sesame Street Live website