SUMMER TERRACES
ALL YEAR LONG
Summer terraces are THE
night Horeca outlets in the
Canary Islands.
The Town Halls in Santa Cruz de
Tenenfe and Las Palmas have a public
bid system for the permits (only a
few summer terraces are allowed per
city, mainly due to existing Horeca
opposition) and large sums of money
are offered. This year permits are for
three years, so bidding has been
specially competitive. The bid is only
the start however, because the ter
races must be built in a very short
space of time, two to three weeks, or
sometimes even less, so things get
very hectic.
The terraces have themes, such
as the West in terraza Los Daltons,
Titanic, La Mala Vida (the bad life), or
the jungle in terraza Mogambo, and
a lot of creativity goes into the
design.
If a summer terrace becomes fas
hionable, it's a must-do to go every
weekend to see and be seen and of
course to have a Heineken. All the
terraces have exclusivity contracts
with various products, not just for
the consumption but for the image,
so there's some negotiation on
where to put signage for the brands.
Weather is not a problem in the
Canary Islands so you can be out
until 4 a.m. having a Heineken in the
open air in a trendy designed sum
mer terrace. There are worse things
in life!
