4. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Carnival, Spain Characterized by costumes, cross-dressing and beauty pageants, this carnival has a main attraction point the port area and the pageant for deciding the carnival queen, a big televised spectacle that lasts for several hours. There beautiful woman dressed in fabulous costumes display on a specially constructed 1,200 metre square stage. After the queen is selected, the streets are flooded by hundreds of musicians and dancing crowds. Tenerife prouds itself with is as being the most flamboyant and extravagant of all carnivals.