Photo: Marek Śliwecki · CC BY-SA 4.0
From shopping centre to shared home
The Yumbo opened in October 1982 and was completed in the mid-eighties: a rectangular building of some 20,000 square metres with an open plan, its entrance at street level and the retail floors stepping down through courtyards and terraces. Over the years LGBTQ+ nightlife took over its terraces until it became the place it is today; the Canary Islands tourist board presents it as the only LGBT shopping centre in the world, and its central square is named Plaza de la Diversidad Darío Jaén after a local activist.
Two lives in one place
In the morning and at midday the Yumbo is an ordinary shopping centre: pharmacies, hairdressers, fashion, electronics and restaurants of every cuisine, with the Cabildo's island tourist office on the corner of Avenida de España and Avenida de Estados Unidos. As night falls the signs change: gay bars with terraces, drag shows, pop pubs and clubs until the small hours, most of them open to everyone and a few for men only. It is a place to come without a plan and drift from terrace to terrace.
The Yumbo during Pride
During Maspalomas Pride by Freedom the central plaza becomes the main stage: free open-air concerts and galas every night, streamed live, in a space the Canary Islands tourist board puts at more than 30,000 people. On the big Saturday the parade rolls down the avenues of Playa del Inglés and finishes at the Yumbo's main entrance, where the party carries on into the small hours. The Maspalomas International Carnival and the Winter Pride in November are also centred here.
Tips
- The shows on the plaza stage are free; the rest of the programme is on this site.
- By day it is a shopping centre full of families; the nightlife starts late.
- The Cabildo's tourist information office is inside the centre itself, at the corner of Avenida de España and Avenida de Estados Unidos.
- Keep the noise down in the surrounding streets when you leave in the small hours: people live here.
