The colorful floats, queens and murgas to the sound of the famous “tonadas” of Panama await more than a million people eager to celebrate the carnival, the largest festival in the country, which returns to the streets after two years suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic

. It’s a euphoria, it’s carnival. Two years without doing it and now we go with everything we can,” the scenographer in charge of one of the main platforms of Panama City, the Panamanian Rafael Navarro, told EFE.

Navarro, who admitted that this year’s carnivals are very “exciting”, is the example of how the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed that party and, with it

“For us it is like starting again to resume work and the holidays, which for many is debauchery, but for those of us who are working it is our way of surviving because we have come from two years unemployed,” he added.

It is expected that 1.5 million carnivalgoers will mobilize throughout the country, with about 4.4 million inhabitants, generating about 300,000,000 dollars in just four days

The town of Las Tablas, located almost 300 kilometers from Panama City and known as the carnival capital in Panama, began to celebrate last Thursday night after the last practice of the “tonadas” of the murgas, the singing in a mocking tone of musical groups.

n an atypical celebration, that small town has two queens, one of “Calle Arriba” and another of “Calle Abajo” who compete, accompanied by comparsas, tunas and murgas that sing lyrics mocking the rival, for the applause of the public. However, there is no jury or choice of the winner.