How much money and what prizes do the carnival groups win in the COAC final?

Once the winners are known, it’s over. He Official Contest of Carnival Groups (COAC) comes to an end after the last phase, when the names of the chirigotas, comparsas, choirs and quartets that have managed to win over the members of the jury are known.

What prizes do the groups win?

For each modality there is a total of four prizes and a second prize, all of them with a trophy for the winners. In the case in which the number of groups that compete in the final is less than four, which is the maximum that can reach this phase, the prizes can be declared void, “granting the jury the same in direct order to the score obtained, the first corresponding to the one with the highest score and so on”. This implies that, in the case of the 2023 edition of the COAC, all the quartets that have participated can win a prize —this year there were only four quartets— even though some of them have been falling in the previous phases.

In the Contest, all the groups have the possibility of obtaining a economic prize depending on the result of their participation and the COAC phases they pass, although in all cases these are collective prizes, as stated in the COAC bases. This is the amount of all the prizes, included in an annex to the aforementioned document:

The groupings that they take the first prize in each modality have the obligation to perform at the COAC 2023 awards gala, which is held after Piñata Sunday. If any of them could not perform at the ceremony, they will lose the right to receive the economic allocation that their prize entails.

What if there is a tie?

This case is also included in the COAC bases. If there is a tie in the highest and lowest scores awarded by the members of the jury, there will be a tiebreaker eliminating the lowest score that results after the sum of the partial points obtained in:

• tangos, in the case of the choirs
• pasodobles, in the case of comparsas
• cuplés and refrain, in the case of chirigotas
• parodies, in the case of quatrains

If still the tie remains, there will be a second tiebreaker eliminating the lowest score that results after the sum of partial points obtained in pasodobles, in the case of chirigotas, and cuplés and refrains in the case of choirs, comparsas and quartets. “The score awarded in the type section will always be the same, except for the groups that change costume in the following phases, which will score again. If in some of the phases the costume was the same as in a previous one, the score will be the one awarded the first time, “says the COAC in its bases.