Cádiz Carnival: Political Satire Sung in the Street

Cádiz Carnival has been going since at least the 17th century — a 1636 document records the authorities admitting they could not stop it, and a general complained in 1652 that dockworkers refused to fix his ship because it was carnival. Masked balls were banned by the Crown in 1716 and the bans were repeated all century and in 1816, and none of them worked. What it is now is competitive satirical singing: chirigotas, comparsas, coros and cuartetos writing new words every year, mostly about politics. It was made a Festival of International Tourist Interest in 1980.