Image: Sergio Betancort
The Santo Domingo convent in Teguise hosted the XIX Edition of the Guanapay Couplets Festival on Friday night. The event began with the Los Paperos group, who came from Valleseco de Gran Canaria. A family with about twenty-two years of life and since its formation concerned with keeping alive the cultural traditions of our land. During the thirty minutes they remained on stage, Los Paperos offered a varied repertoire that was very well received by the public who presented them with their applause.
Secondly, the recently created group and the first of this genre in Lanzarote, formed by about twenty-five women with the name "Calicanto", took the stage. Directed by Vanessa Rijo, they performed six songs in the style of Spanish pop such as, "No dudaría" by the composer Antonio Flores or "Derroche" by the Canarian Pedro Guerra among others. For the women of Calicanto it was a great responsibility as well as a great illusion to be able to participate in a festival as consolidated as Guanapay but the truth is that they gave everything in their performance to which the public rewarded them with their applause.
Immediately afterwards, the reading of the jury's decision of the XIX Edition of the Guanapay Canary Islands Couplets Contest was carried out, Francisco Hernández, secretary of the jury, announced the name of the winners. Best set of couplets for "La Mujer del Marinero", author Jesús Manuel Hernández García from Los Realejos in Tenerife, the winner of the best couplet was, Juan Carlos Monteverde García from Tenerife. Once the name of the winners was known, the hosts and organizers of the festival, the Guanapay folklore group, took to the stage, and they were responsible for making a broad display of our traditional Canarian music and dances, thus closing a night marked by the cultural traditions of the Canary Islands.
Among the audience was also the mayor of Teguise Oswaldo Betancort, who was very supported by the councilors of the government and opposition group.
