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Date Published: 05/02/2025

Orihuela Costa gets zero funding for 2025 Carnival parade

Orihuela spends 14,500 euros on its festival but residents on the coast have to pay for their own parade

Orihuela Costa residents are feeling short-changed yet again as it’s been confirmed that Orihuela City Council won’t fork out a penny towards the grand parade for the Carnival 2025, despite budgeting 14,520 euros for the celebrations in the city.

The Carnival, which draws thousands of visitors to the region each year, will be held in Orihuela City on March 4 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. It will boast two large marching bands, 15 children’s characters, stilt walkers and five floats with sound equipment, plus lots more besides.

Orihuela Costa, on the other hand, never has a Carnival organised by the council and it’s instead left to the local Festival Commission, which has to make all of the arrangements and find the funding. The parade been scheduled for February 15 and residents and sponsors have scraped together 7,000 euros in a huge community effort.

According to local group Unidos Por La Costa, this is yet another example of Orihuela Costa being treated as the poor relative, despite bringing in more than 50 million euros annually to the municipal coffers.

The 2025 budget of the Council of Festivities for grants and the organisation of events like Semana Santa, Moors and Christians, Christmas, Halloween and Medieval Market for all of Orihuela municipality is around 2.3 million euros; of this, a paltry 200,000 euros will be spent on the coast.

Essentially, Orihuela Costa generates more than half of the income but receives only 8% in holiday spending, while the rest of the municipality takes 92% of the total.

In any case, the Orihuela Costa Carnival Parade 2025 will take place next Saturday (February 15). It will begin at 5pm travelling along Nicolás Bussi, from Calle Pintor Ribera to the Los Dolses school, where from 12pm there will be live music and food, as well as bouncy castles for the kids and public toilets.

So far, 15 groups with a total of 400 participants have already signed up for the Orihuela Costa parade, all of them created by residents, schools, dance schools, etc.

“We are very proud of the participation, and we believe that more support is needed from the City Council,” a spokesperson said, adding that “two weeks before the event we are still looking for sponsors to cover the extra cost of the stage and a generator.”

Also of interest: Sundays and holidays that shops in Orihuela Costa and City will open

Image: Orihuela Costa Festival Commission

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