In addition, the development of their groups (mainly their choirs, chirigotas, comparsas and quartets) differentiates them from other carnivals in the world and also identifies them as a communicational phenomenon.

In the process of its own organisation, the Cadiz Carnival takes on peculiarities of Italian, explicable by the fundamentally Genoese influence that Cádiz knew since the fifteenth century.

After the Turks' displacement to the Mediterranean, Italian merchants moved to the West, finding Cádiz a place of settlement perfectly communicated with the commercial objectives that the Genoese were looking for: the north and center of Africa.

Other documents that record the celebration of the carnivals are the Synod Constitutions of 1591 and the Statutes of the Seminary of Cádiz in 1596, both contain indications so that the religious did not participate in the festivities in a way that the seculars did.

There is also evidence of the events that took place in 1678, the year in which the cleric Nicolás Aznar was accused of having adulterous relations with Antonia Gil Morena, whom he had met during the carnival.

In the carnival of 1776, excesses were committed in the convent of Santa María and in that of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, which caused scandals in the city.

[7] It was not until 1947 when the tradition was recovered, a fact that occurred as a result, paradoxically, of a disgrace: the explosion of the San Severiano storage depot, who caused some 200 victims in the city.

The comparsas are well-known witty and satiric groups that train for the whole year to sing about politics, topics in the news, and everyday circumstances, while all of the members wear identical costumes.

They sing in the streets and squares, at improvised venues like outdoor staircases or portals, and in established open-air tablaos (tableaux) organized by the carnival clubs.

The choirs (coros) are larger groups that travel through the streets on open flat-bed carts or wagons, singing, with a small ensemble of guitars and lutes.

Besides these, other musical forms, including short improvisations and theatrical skits are featured, mostly by the so-called illegal chirigotas, murgas, or callejeras, that don't submit to any rule or contest.

Other contests take place before, during, and after the Carnival, usually organized by institutions and private clubs, and their venues are open tablaos in the public squares (plazas) of the city.