Enjoy Dia de Canarias 2026

Today it's Dia de Canarias day once again, the Canarian 'national' holiday when the inhabitants of the Canaries are allowed to proudly say ''Soy Canario'' (I'm Canarian) and celebrate their feeling of national identity under Spanish colonial rule. Towns and villages enjoy one of the region’s biggest annual cultural celebrations with all things considered typically Canarian. The public holiday is the anniversary of the first session of the Canary Islands Parliament in 1983 and is celebrated every year with traditional music, dancing, food, concerts and many other local events across all of the islands. Wherever you are in the Canaries you will find local events, some also before and after the actual day itself. Below is the poster for the main event in Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera, which starts at 2 pm in the harbour of Vueltas and continues all day until the early hours of Sunday morning:

Canary Islands Day 2025

The Canary Islands celebrate their national holiday Dia de Canarias every year on the 30th of May with lots of activities, concerts and celebrations, read more about it here...

The 2025 programme for Valle Gran Rey (above) has lots of local and Canarian folk music and more and will take place behind the bus station (where the Sunday market is situated) and begins at 1pm.

Live music making cautious comeback

Spontaneous session in a tiny bar recently ♫

Tonight at Manolo's in
La Puntilla (near statue)

Live music in La Gomera and especially in Valle Gran Rey, the busiest and most cosmopolitan town of the island, is back and there are now numerous options for good night out again. Nightlife as regards live music had been severely restricted for a couple of years due to the over-zealous enforcement  by the police of obscure regulations which meant that venues would have needed a special licence for live music 'events' and alas this licence could often not be obtained, while DJs could play canned music anywhere. For a tourist town Valle Gran Rey had become almost a ghost town at night, but this year a lot more visitors and locals are out and about at night enjoying the diversity of the live music on offer once again.

A more workable solution seems to have been found and especially at weekends musicians are back entertaining locals and visitors. Great care is being taken by the bars and restaurants  to finish the live music well before midnight so as not to upset those neighbours and tourists who want to go to bed early. A lot of music sessions are not even being advertised to avoid the entertainment being labelled an 'event'. From the new small bar on the beach in Vueltas to the 'Salsa Burger' in La Playa live music and also DJs can be enjoyed in a good few bars and restaurants and it is worth having a stroll after dinner to listen to the varied music on offer, which once was the major attraction that made Valle Gran Rey's ambience so pleasant. 
Most Sunday afternoons there are open sessions at the bus station bar in La Calera where anything can happen and the Restaurant 'El Palmar' hidden among the palms near Borbalan never stopped being a focal point for local live music.

The 'Gomera Lounge' in La Playa has now installed costly soundproofing and after having been closed for some time is back with a full programme. Among the regular acts there are 'Los Satelites', the former house band-cum-session of the famous 'Bar Maria' which sadly is still closed after Maria's death. This recently taken video by A.Lindemann below proves that there's a great atmosphere in Valle Gran Rey once again: