It's just a few minutes past nine in the evening, and I'm out with some friends, listening to the noise of the surrounding streets, filled with expectation and more than a little nervous. We hear a blend of songs playing on dozens of loudspeakers nearby, a Brazilian song over here, the lastest pop hit over there, and voices, lots of voices. We are on a street in central Sitges, a small town just a few kilometers south of Barcelona, in Spain, and it's the middle of winter.

We can sense the 50 floats lined up along the narrow streets of Sitges, and, standing around them, the people parading in this year's Sitges Carnival rubbing their hands to keep warm. It's the first parade of the Carnival, la Rua de la Disbauxa, the Parade of Debauchery.

It's cold, and it feels even colder to us since our clothes, if they can be called that, consist solely of bright, tight, sequined shorts made from some kind of elastic, metallic fabric and sleeves and platform boots in the same material. Our chests are bare (except for the ladies, they get funky corsets!). And then there's the hat, perhaps the most outrageous, infamous piece of the whole outfit, very tall and very bright. We cheer each other on, "Wow, it's cold, but look at us, we look spectacular!"

Suddenly, more excitement! A familiar song starts playing. It's our choreography song, which we've been listening and rehearsing to over and over again during the past few months, trying to get our legs more or less in sync with the music (in my case, at least). This song will be part of our five minutes of glory, when we arrive at the Cap de la Vila -the town centre- and dance in front of a sea of people, even TV cameras. We all run to our positions and once again repeat the steps we've learned so well.

From Calle Jesús a huge crowd extends all the way to Parellades street, down Bonaire street to the seafront boulevard and all the way to Espalter street. They are waiting for us. Thousands of people who will applaud, enthusiastic and admiring our costumes just like they will the ones parading ahead of and behind us.

For close to 4 hours, 50 floats just like ours will parade down the narrow streets of the Vila Blanca de Sitges (the white town of Sitges), a glorious explosion of feathers in all sizes and colours, glitter powder, extravagant make-up, bright and metallic colours, tanned skin, gods and goddesses in platform boots as well as pirates, Venetian carnival classics, elves and fairies, and the crowd will shout over and over again - guapos! guapas! - and they'll snap thousands of photos and shoot thousands of videos.

And how did we all get to this place? A group of men and women, teachers, hairdressers, engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs, parents, couples, hetero and gay people who live in Sitges and other places throughout Catalonia. We have one thing in common: We love the Carnival!

We love to get together, starting as early as the middle of the year, to plan and discuss, have dinners together, rehearse, and talk about corsets, boots, fabrics, colours, all of it leading up to this moment, these two days, which we live and enjoy to the utmost.

Suddenly, the float starts rolling and our excitement peaks.

We are about to experience our moment in the spotlight at the Cap de la Vila, followed by almost four hours of parading, dancing to the music of our own loudspeakers, laughing and freezing until we think we can't go any further, because we've lost all feeling in our feet. But secretly we all wish that the night wouldn't have to end, that all of those eyes would stay on us, that this madness would envelop us forever and make us forget our jobs, our worries, our daily stress. We want to go on being the Stars of the Sitges Carnival.

February 16-22, 2012

More information on the official website of Sitges

Photo: Two participants in the Rua de l'Extermini 2011, Ajuntament de Sitges website