A white angel will fly through the sky of Madrid to open the parade of Three Kings 2023 and will mark the path of the message of peace that the Madrid City Council wishes to transmit, a message of peace and love in the world addressed to all people. The Three Kings parade in Madrid will once again be an exciting spectacle, full of magic and surprises, which all Madrid residents and visitors who wish to can enjoy live. It will also be possible to follow the procession through the live broadcast of both RTVE, in its national and international broadcast, and Telemadrid.
The delegate for Culture, Tourism and Sport, Andrea Levy, expressed her joy this afternoon by announcing that “the Three Kings of the East are already in Madrid, the three royal emissaries have just informed me”, whom Levy has received in the Casa de la Panadería and that they have already greeted hundreds of children in the Plaza Mayor. The delegate has urged the little ones to “behave well” in the presence of the emissaries sent by her majesties, who have entrusted her with many details of tomorrow’s parade.
The star of the East will guide the caravan of the Magi
Announced by an angel and guided by the star of the East, the three Wise Men will enter Madrid tomorrow accompanied by a procession of more than a thousand people who, together with the royal carriages, will set off on the Paseo de la Castellana at 6:30 p.m. and whose tour will end with a speech by Their Majesties in the Plaza de Cibeles shortly before 9:00 p.m., to later deliver gifts to all the children of Madrid. The three royal floats will be accompanied by eight other floats and ten professional companies that will fill the heart of Madrid with magic and color.
A passage from the Bible as a starting point
The story tells us that, many years ago, three wise men from Europe, Persia and Africa traveled thousands of kilometers to see a child named Jesus who had just been born. We know that their names were Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar and that they brought him gold as king of the Jews, incense that represented his divinity and myrrh from him as a symbol that he would die for the salvation of men. It is a short passage from the Bible, but later chronicles and oral tradition have enhanced its image over the centuries. Because the story of the Three Kings symbolizes, in reality, something much deeper, it represents the recognition of the other and the harmony between people and territories. The three wise men did not only bring gold, incense and myrrh, they came from the East to adore a child who had just been born and to be able to convey his message of peace and love to the world.
Also taking a passage from the Bible as a reference, the City Council wants to celebrate the arrival of Their Majesties by representing them as three emissaries of peace, which is the motto of the Three Kings Parade in Madrid 2023. With this action, they want to promote peace as universal symbol of union between people and peoples. Peace not only as an ideal, but as a real goal that we can all achieve together. Peace, harmony, dialogue and understanding are key in the world we have to live in. Madrid will be the place and the parade will be the moment to claim and celebrate the universal principle of peace.
The announcement of the arrival of the Kings
A white angel flies through the sky of Madrid announcing the arrival of the parade. He is the messenger who points out the path of peace that this procession wishes to bear witness to and who carries the divine announcement of the birth of the child and a message of peace and love in the world to all people. Upon the angel’s arrival in Plaza de Cibeles, 300 biodegradable balloons will be released, as a symbol of the desire for peace and harmony, which will travel to the ends of the world, from north to south and from east to west, taking the message to all places universal of concord, unity and brotherly love.
After the angel, created by the Paraddax Show Company, 11 riders from the Madrid Municipal Police Cavalry Squad will open the parade and ride through the streets with their horses. They will be followed by a group of young people from the Lukas Foundation on adapted bicycles and two Naviluz buses with 50 people each. Next, two mobile units from Samur Social and two units from SAMUR-Civil Protection will transit, accompanied by various professionals on foot. Then it will be the turn of the EMT representatives, who will take two of its oldest and most iconic buses, the 1957 Leyland Titan and the articulated Pegaso 6035, and another modern one. The Madrid Fire Brigade will also exhibit some of the oldest models in its museum such as the Seat 600L, the Autoescala Magirusy, the Mercedes Pump and the Escala 50.
The procession will continue with the Florentine standard-bearers of the Compagnia Bandierai degli Uffizi who, with their drums, trumpets and Renaissance flags, will announce the arrival of Their Majesties. The movements of the flag-wavers with their incessant launching of banners into the air are a tradition in Italy when important dates and festivities are commemorated.
And the parade will continue with the Special Cavalry Unit of the Provincial Citizen Security Brigade of the National Police, made up of 11 horseback riders who will make way for the floats.
Arrival of the floats
The floats of the sponsors will also be present, starting with that of the Association of Large Families of Madrid, followed by those of Amazon and Disney Junior–Movistar+. And then The Panthers Marching Band, made up of 90 young American students from the University of Northern Iowa, will cheer everyone up with their music.
The floats from RTVE, El Corte Inglés and the one from the Teatro Real will give way to the Gigante Carbonero, four meters high, in charge of the Ramón de los Heros Company, which pulls a wheelbarrow loaded with coal. And the band of bugles and kettledrums from the Civil Guard Cavalry Group will announce the imminent arrival of the royal entourage.
The procession of the Magi
The Eastern Star is the lighthouse that guides the entourage of Their Majesties the Magi. Seven archangels accompany her and meander down her luminous tail in an endless dance. Two angels on two white horses follow them. The angels and archangels are accompanied by allegories of peace, time, harmony, justice and nature. Some wise astrologers also follow the star while studying it. Along with these characters, the crackle of the comet will surprise, represented by 40 silver stars that end up giving shape to the star that guides the Wizards. Next, the Lady of the Night will arrive in a carriage drawn by four horses. All of them artists from the Morboria theater company.
At that moment, the royal procession will make its appearance through the streets of Madrid, attracted by the wake of the star of the East, with the luminous carriages that carry the thrones of the Magi and their three valuable presents for the child that has just been born. : gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The first to make an appearance will be King Melchor, representative of the easternmost areas of Europe, who will be accompanied by two pages, the royal page and another representing the Down Madrid Foundation. The procession, escorted by 146 musicians from the Pittsburg High School Marching Show Band (California), will be made up of five standard-bearers and 20 pages and, around the float, another 54 pages (citizen participation and Volunteers for Madrid) who They will parade along the route.
Melchor will be in charge of bringing the baby Jesus a very special present from the very heart of the stars: gold, which symbolizes sunlight, divine intelligence and spiritual goods.
Next, the carriage of King Gaspar will arrive from distant Asia. He will be assisted by his sign language translator page and a page from the Down Madrid Foundation. His gift to the baby Jesus will be the incense from the mixture of various vegetables that symbolizes spiritual cleansing and is the bridge between the human and the divine.
Five standard-bearers and 20 pages will accompany the carriage of the Wizard King and, around it, another 54 pages (citizen participation and Volunteers for Madrid) will display all the exoticism of the distant Asian continent parading along the route.
They will be followed by a large flock of birds that fly through the skies of the East, arriving from all corners of the planet, accompanying the Three Wise Men on their journey to Madrid. A wonderful procession; a procession of characters, precious and magnificent birds that look like stained glass hanging from the sky and that invite you to follow them in their aerial dance and in a flight of fantasy, managed by artists from the Remue Menage Company.
A large caravan arriving from Africa announces the presence of the carriage of King Baltasar who will be accompanied by two royal pages and who will carry the last gift, myrrh, an aromatic resinous substance with medicinal properties that symbolizes the healing of pain and also that Jesus, although he is a divine being, he is also human. The procession will be made up of five standard-bearers and 20 pages and another 54 pages (citizen participation and Volunteers for Madrid) who will accompany the Wizard King and will parade displaying all the magnetism of the African continent.
A high end closure
To conclude the parade, the artists of the Compañía Oposito will drive three imposing mechanical elephants that will arrive accompanied by a squadron of metal phoenixes that will make the tour of the Three Kings Parade in Madrid under the sound of the drums of an army of lead soldiers. .
This year, the procession has had an exceptional team: Ricardo Sánchez Cuerda (set designer and designer of the royal floats), Nuria Castejón (choreographer and stage director), Gabriela Salaverri (costume designer), Maxi Gilbert (lighting designer and visuals), Sabina Atlanta and Beatriz Carballo (costume assistants), Miguel Angel Infante (props), Susana Gozalvez (characterization), Sastrería Cornejo (costume making) and Scenik Movil (construction of Three Kings’ floats).
Cibeles stage
But not only the streets of Madrid will have a show in style. On the stage of the Plaza de Cibeles, music and the circus will be the stars until the floats arrive. At 6:30 p.m., the Creativa Junior Big Band, directed by Patxi Pascual, will perform. And at 7:00 p.m., the circus show of Producers of Smiles, circlasica. asian legendswill offer a performance of acrobats.
The Ukrainian children’s choir PEREDZVIN will sing for peace receiving the winged angel who, suspended over the sky of Madrid, will bear witness to the desire to proclaim to all parts of the world the universal message of peace, harmony, unity and brotherly love between one another. And, while the Three Wise Men arrive to address the people of Madrid, their emissaries and ambassadors will present their offerings with a musical piece by the composer Tomás Bretón, remembering that this 2023 will celebrate its centenary.
After the speeches by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and by Their Majesties the Three Wise Men, the Vulcano company will put the grand culmination of the Three Kings Parade 2023 with an impressive pyrotechnic show with hundreds of fireworks and the musical theme Zadok the Priestby Händel, as a soundtrack.
At its end, the three Wise Men will leave the City Hall aboard two taxis to continue distributing gifts to the children of Madrid.
The Christmas campaign organized by the Madrid City Council, through the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports, this year has the following sponsors: El Corte Inglés, Disney Junior, Amazon, Productores de Sonrisas and Fundación Reale. The Teatro Real also participates as a collaborator and has RTVE and Telemadrid as official collaborating media.
A parade of the Three Kings accessible to all
So that all people can enjoy the visit of Their Majesties of the East as much as possible, along the entire route of the Three Kings Parade in Madrid, five delimited areas have been planned and marked with the International Symbol of Accessibility, reserved for people with disabilities, especially people in wheelchairs and people with reduced mobility who cannot access the rest of the seats in the stands.