The unique combination of spectacular landscapes, live music, sunny weather and first of all the great fun is common for this island.

Additionally, a lot of festivals promote folk and rural traditions. For example “romeria” festival is a well-known-way to honor different patron saints. It is a pilgrimage of folk music and traditional Canarian clothes and what is more, of colorful oxen-drawn carts.

One of the most popular traditional “romeria” festivals takes place in Tegueste, a municipality of the northern part of Tenerife in Santa Cruz de Tenerife province.

The Romería de San Marcos in Tegueste is a famous traditional festival, which main aim is to honor Saint Marcos. The festival promotes, but first of all conserves and cultivates old Canarian traditions. That is why; it is a great and unique opportunity to experience some of time-honored activities, Canarian dress, wonderful folk music and dance of traditional folk groups.

If you would like to experience a great atmosphere and to find yourself in the middle of a colorful and traditional festival, where the locals know exactly how to celebrate, the Romería de San Marcos would be perfect for you.

Indeed, it is celebrated only all five years, then, however, the whole island stands during two weeks under the sign of the celebration of the patron saint.

In a church parade the patron saint of the island, Nieves, is carried from the chapel into the city center.

Part of the celebrations are performances like the traditional minuet at the Plaza de Santo Domingo in the commune of La Guancha which aductes the spectator in the world of the 18-th century with original costumes, music and folcloric dances. The absolute climax of the celebration is the dance of the dwarfs.

The splendid gala to nominate the annual carnival-queen is among the most impressive moments fullo of rhythm, colours and fun without limit.

Thousands of joyfully celebrating dressed ups are dancing on the streets and enjoy themselves till the early morning hours.

The carnival of Tenerife is a great spectacle, which you should’nt miss in any case, surely you will be impressed.

Party time is in full swing in the northern Tenerife resort of Puerto de la Cruz, which is in the middle of its annual July fiestas.

The main festivities pay tribute to the Gran Poder and the Virgen del Carmen, the patron saints of the town.

A wide range of typical activities are organised in the course of the month, but the undoubted highlight comes on the second Tuesday of the month – this year July 17 – when the Virgen del Carmen (pictured above) is paraded through the narrow cobbled streets before being loaded on to a boat and taken out to sea.

The day draws huge crowds, as witnessed in the picture below, with families camping out overnight around the little harbour to ensure they get the best places.

It’s a typical Canarian family day, with all generations joining in the fun.

Similar celebrations are held all over Tenerife at around the same time but few are as spectacular or as moving as the processions in Puerto.

In addition to her many duties, the Virgen del Carmen is the patron saint of fishermen and the local fisherfolk consider it a great honour to be chosen to carry the enormous statute down to the harbour for her annual outing.

As they stagger and sway through the streets under the weight of the figure, the fishermen are hemmed in by hordes of onlookers desparate not only to see the spectacle but also to try to touch Carmen for luck.

As Carmen arrives at the harbour to be carried down to the water’s edge, the temperature of the occasion rises sharply as her progress is marked by the singing of Ave Maria.

It’s a moment charged with high emotion for the by now tens of thousands of people packed around the harbour, clinging to the sea wall or watching from the crowded balconies of the surrounding high buildings.

The statue is eventually lashed to a simple fishing vessel that looks as though it will sink under the combined weight of Carmen and her enormous entourage (see below) and the party edges its way through scores of tiny boats packed into the harbour as tightly as proverbial sardines.

The island capital of Santa Cruz has a full programme of films throughout June, July and August, the biggest of which are staged in the Parque Cultural Viera y Clavico.

Details of individual screenings can be found on the Santa Cruz town hall website, www.sctfe.es

In Los Realejos, the cinema takes to the beach in August with movies being shown on the Playa del Socorro.

Open-air cinema is also part of the Los Realejos programme of activities for the Carmen Festival between July 6-14.

Three films are being shown this week (July 9, 10 and 11) in the Plaza de San Agustín.

More details are on the town hall website at www.ayto-realejos.es

The week-long event will be attended by a number of Hollywood and Spanish composers and will include two concerts by the recently-formed Tenerife Film Orchestra and Choir.

The first will be in the island’s oldest theatre, the Teatro Guimerá on Saturday July 14 and will features works by Mychael Danna, Sean Callery and Angel Illarramendi.

The festival will draw to a close the next day, Sunday, with a concert in the Auditorio de Tenerife, this time featuring scores by Diego Navarro and Don Davis.

The programme for the first five days of the festival includes a series of conferences and discussions featuring the guest composers.

More information on the event can be found on its website www.fimucite.com

The fiesta programme of events began on April 26 and some, notably the sports tournaments, continue until the end of May.

But the one event that draws extraordinary crowds to the town is the Exhibicíon Pirotécnica, this year on Thursday, May 3.

Two rival manufacturers supply the fireworks for the late-night display, which is generally regarded as being the best anywhere in the Canaries, if not the whole of Spain.

And this is on an island where they need little or no excuse for staging spectacular fireworks displays.

Thursday’s pyrotechnic show will come at the height of the Festival of the Cross, around which the whole of Los Realejos’s month-long celebrations are centred.

The month-long event celebrates the culture and important traditions of the Canary Islands, with the focus on music, costumes and crafts.

It is the second time the Jazzindance festival has been staged and it seems likely it will become a permanent fixture on the island’s cultural calendar.

Admission to the festival, being staged in the town’s historic Plaza de Constitucíon, is free.

A number of British performers are taking part, including the Jazzcotech Dancers from London, who will be organising a Jazzindance Workshop between 10.30am and 2.30pm.

In the evening, a series of Jazz gigs and DJ sets takes place on two stages, starting at 9pm and going on into the small hours.

But in Puerto de la Cruz in the north of the island they’re planning two fiestas in one day on Thursday May 3.

First up are celebrations to honour the founding of the town way back in 1651, involving elaborate and colourful processions through the streets.

Before that Puerto was part of the neighbouring town of La Orotava and and indeed was known as Puerto de La Orotava.

Puerto had grown in importance because the merchants and traders of prosperous La Orotava needed an outlet for their goods to be shipped off to the Spanish mainland.

The Spanish settlers weren’t the first to appreciate the potential afforded by this sheltered little bay. There is evidence that the native Guanche people, who inhabited the island before the Hispanic conquest, had chosen this same site for a cave settlement on the cliffs of what is now the up-market La Paz area of the town.

The second of the celebrations is the Fiesta de la Cruz, or Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Fixed crosses are set out in various parts of the town garlanded with floral decorations that have evolved over long periods of time.

Crosses are a distinct feature of the town and can be found everywhere, on the external walls of buildings, in chapels and ermitas, which Puerto has in abundance, and on public buildings.

Each cross has its own style of decoration, some highly colourful, others entirely in shades of the same colour. A variety of materials are used in the decorations, too, such as timber reclaimed from shipwrecks.

One particular cross, in Calle Mequinez, is decorated with fish bones and scales.

A full range of events is planned for the week-long festival, starting on Sunday April 29 and continuing through to Sunday May 6.

They take place across the city, but mainly in Plaza del Príncipe, Parque García Sanabria and Calle La Noria.

The colourful series of events include an International Marionette Festival, several other puppet shows, an exhibition of flowers, a concert of Canarian music, and a flower crosses workshop and competition.

The whole city will be decked out with traditional floral crosses and the highlight of the programme will be on the evening of May 2, a Great Canarian Fiesta with traditional Canarian dress a prominent feature.

In 1999, the party, known as the Dance of Magicians, went into the Guinness Book of Records when 8,000 people ate, drank and danced in the streets in traditional costume.

The fiesta week is centred around May 3, the date on which the city was founded way back in 1494.

The tapas competition is another popular feature and is now in its sixth year. Restaurants and bars specialising in tapas will compete in three classes – traditional, creative and Canarian.

Participating establishments will not be revealed until nearer the date, though generally they are concentrated around Calle La Noria and surrounding streets, which make up the old part of the city.

The winners will become part of a ‘Ruta de la Tapa’ (Tapas Route) through the city, a great way of exploring the ancient capital while at the same time tasting some of its best gastronomic offerings.

May is a great month of celebration in Santa Cruz and the rest of the island, reflecting the traditional culture, history and religion of the island, and is marked by processions, pilgrimages and sporting contests.

His record attempt, mostly over the Atlantic Ocean, will see him endeavour to cover the 1,350km (nearly 840 miles) from Jerez de La Frontera in southern Spain to Tenerife, a journey that will see him flying down the west coast of Africa.

Ramon has timed his record bid to coincide with the third Los Realejos International Paragliding Festival, due to start on Friday (April 27) at Socorro beach in the north of Tenerife.

The holder of five current FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) world records, Ramon now plans to start his epic flight on Monday (April 23), aiming to beat his own existing distance record of 951km.

He will have with him a fuel load of 65kg and special safety equipment that includes a wet suit, life vest, radio beacons, water-activated strobe light, tracking devices and a self-inflating life raft.

The real-time progress of his flight can be followed on www.draconexion.com.

The five-day festival will feature some of the world’s leading exponents of the arts of paragliding, hang gliding and parachuting.

The festival has quickly established itself on the international schedule of paragliding events, due in no small part to the fact that Tenerife offers perfect all-year-round conditions for the sport.

At the first staging of the event two years ago, two new world records were set, one for paramotor altitude at 5,395 metres and the other in acrobatics when 75 manoeuvres were achieved in a vertical tumble of 1,900 metres, massively overhauling the previous record of 30.

The first day of this year’s festival will be devoted to a welcoming party, checking of participants’ credentials and an official opening.

The real fun gets underway the following morning with first take-offs set for 11am.

Among the record attempts planned for this year is a crack at the world paramotor distance mark in which Spanish pilots César Maldonado, Francisco Renedo, Ramón López Santiago and Ramón Morillas will endeavour to fly from Andalucia in mainland Spain to Los Realejos.

The leading Spanish pilots taking part in the festival will be joined by a galaxy of world’ leaders in the sport from Austria, the United States, Venezuela, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan.

Running alongside the aerial activities will be a series of concerts, which will culminate in a spectacular and colourful pyromusic show as the climax to the closing ceremony.

The event is based around the playground resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island from April 21-28.

Taking the lion’s share of award nominations is a Canadian film, ‘Tripping the Wire’, which is nominated in six of the eleven categories, namely best film, best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress and best director.

A two-hour murder mystery set in Montreal and directed by Canadian director Stephen Surjik, Tripping the Wire stars Clark Johnson as street-wise detective Stephen Tree, who is struggling to keep a past crime of his own secret as he attempts to solve the brutal murder of a man set on fire.

The film is made by the Canadian company Galafilm.

The Tenerife festival also includes categories for best documentary, best short film, best foreign language film, best animated film, and best music video.

Easter celebrations in Tenerife are known for their magnificent processions, which take place all over the island throughout the week, though the ones in La Laguna, La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz are among the grandest.

As the seat of the Bishop of Tenerife, the celebrations in La Laguna are the most important and culminate in the magnificent Magna procession on Viernes Santo (Good Friday, April 6), which starts at 5pm from the church of Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, one of the oldest churches on the island, dating back to 1502.

The Magna procession is followed by the Silence procession, starting at 9pm, in which all the town’s religious brotherhoods take part.

La Orotava’s main event takes place on Maundy Thursday, or Jueves Santo, with the procession of Senor de Columna, which starts at the church of San Juan and ends in the main square in front of the town hall.

Processions of one kind or another take place pretty much every day in Puerto de la Cruz, starting from church of Nuestra Senora de la Pena de Francia.

The town’s Magna procession is on Maundy Thursday, but most impressive of all is the Crucificado procession which takes place before daybreak on Good Friday, starting at 4am.

In Adeje, they stage their own version of the Passion, starting at 12 noon and re-enacting the events leading up to the crucifixion.

It is carried out on a grand scale, with over 300 local people taking part, with the whole of its two hours screened live on Canarian television.

Semana Santa is celebrated in towns and villages across the island, with other important processions taking place in Guimar, Garachico and Los Realejos.