A Cultural Start to the New Year
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is ushering in the first days of 2026 with a varied programme of cultural and leisure activities designed for all audiences, with special attention on families and children, as part of the ongoing Christmas celebrations and the lead-up to the arrival of Their Majesties the Three Kings. This Thursday, 1 January, at 7:30pm, the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín will host the 2026 New Year’s Concert by the Joven Orquesta de Canarias (JOCAN). Under the direction of Víctor Pablo Pérez, the orchestra will offer a programme combining Canarian compositions and international symphonic repertoire, featuring pianist Martín García García, in a cultural proposal designed to welcome the new year in a solemn yet accessible atmosphere for the general public.
Cinema, Music and Family Fun
The TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes museum begins its 2026 regular cinema schedule with the screening of Ariel, a film by Lois Patiño that adapts Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The filmmaker offers a poetic reflection on freedom and destiny in this piece, starring Agustina Muñoz, Irene Escolar, Hugo Torres and José Díaz, Marta Pazos. Ariel, where metanarrative games between reality and fiction are woven into multiple dualities, will be shown from Friday 2 until Sunday 4 January at 7:00pm in its original version in Spanish, Galician and Portuguese with Spanish subtitles.
On Friday 2 January, the Auditorio de Tenerife will host two performances, at 12:30pm and 5:00pm, of the children’s show CantaJuego: Mega Hits. This family-friendly show invites children to sing, dance and enjoy themselves alongside well-known characters like Coco, Pepe or Buby, reviving the most popular songs from the CantaJuego project in a participatory and festive format, specially designed for shared enjoyment during the Christmas period.
Festive Activities in the City Centre
On Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 January, from 11:00am, the Plaza de La Candelaria becomes one of the main hubs of the ‘Zona Centro en Navidad’ programme with the installation of the Three Kings’ Postal Office. Children will be able to deliver or write their letters to Their Majesties, as well as take part in children’s workshops, in an activity that reinforces the magic and participation of young audiences in the heart of the city.
The Centro-Ifara district is also running a specific Christmas programme. On Saturday 3 January, from 11:00am to 2:00pm, the Plaza de La Llavita will host a Christmas Children’s Party with bouncy castles and workshops, which will include a visit from a royal page. That same day, and also on Sunday 4 January, charitable gift-wrapping stations will be set up from 11:00am to 8:00pm at various locations in central Santa Cruz, promoting values of solidarity and community participation.
Intimate Recitals and Animated Cinema
The cultural offering continues on Saturday 3 January at 7:00pm at the Espacio Cultural CajaCanarias in Santa Cruz with the show Versos de Navidad (Christmas Verses), starring actress Petra Martínez alongside baritone Luis Santana and pianist Víctor Carbajo. The proposal combines poetry, music and traditional carols in an intimate and emotive recital, designed for adult and family audiences, as part of the Fundación CajaCanarias Christmas programme.
That same Saturday at 12:00pm, the Espacio Cultural CajaCanarias will screen the film Kung Fu Panda as part of its Christmas Cinema cycle, an initiative aimed especially at children and families that brings animation to the youngest audiences during the school holidays.
Youth Culture and Emerging Cinema
The agenda also includes youth and musical leisure proposals, such as the ‘Manel El Especialista’ session, which will take place on Saturday 3 January at 7:00pm at the ‘Crudo’ space, located at Calle Clavel, 9. The activity offers a vinyl music selection focused on funk, grooves and world music, broadening the diversity of the city’s cultural offer.
The Asociación Cultural Equipo Para has scheduled a screening of the short films Larva and Las amigas de Dora for Saturday 3 January at 8:30pm. These are works by young Canarian director Julián Santaella that invite an intimate and sensory look at internal processes, identity and human relationships. The session proposes a cinematic journey combining contemporary dance, body and emotion in Larva, where a dancer faces a physical and emotional conflict on the threshold of a decisive moment in her career. Las amigas de Dora, meanwhile, is a story about returning to one’s roots and the bonds that support life transitions. Through austere staging and a careful use of music and image, Santaella creates a cinema of contrasts and atmospheres, where the sensory and the poetic become narrative tools. The screening is part of Equipo Para’s programming line, aimed at bringing contemporary audiovisual proposals to the public and generating spaces for reflection and dialogue around emerging creation.
Skating and Final Festivities
Finally, the Ofra Costa Sur Christmas Park offers a continuous programme from Sunday 4 until Tuesday 6 January in the car park next to the Los Príncipes shopping centre. The space will feature an ice rink, children’s activities and musical entertainment, open from 5:00pm to 8:00pm on 4 and 5 January, and from 10:00am to 1:00pm and 5:00pm to 8:00pm on the 6th, establishing itself as a family meeting point in the days before and after the arrival of the Three Kings.
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