Colombia, whose nationals are instinctively festive and ample party goers, will provide you with one of the best array of festival experiences available world wide!

Colombia is one of the top countries in the world for its variety and quantity of cultural, religious and traditional festivals, with a large amount of main festivals year round and with a staggering amount of other festivals that take place in almost every town and village in the large expanse of Colombia!

Colombia’s festivals boast color, variety, meaning and expression, and are full of fun with many events, competitions, parades, and activities to partake in.

One of the most famous Festivals of Colombia is undoubtedly the Barranquilla Carnival, often compared to Colombia’s own version of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival which takes place in Brazil. The Barranquilla Carnival is located on the Atlantic coast in the city of Barranquilla, and is full of locals, that spend weeks beforehand creating incredible works of art to dress in, and colorful floats. The main theme is color and life, and it is very typical to see animal inspired designs and symbolic creations.

For an explosion of dance, and sexy Salsa beats, Cali is the place to head to. Annually run during the Christmas festive season, Caleñas are seen dancing in the streets during the Cali Fair and putting on some international level dance competitions, making this one of the biggest dance parties in all of Colombia!

In the spring time weather of Medellin, beautiful parades of the countryside’s flowers spill onto the street with beautiful arrangements and bursting displays making up the Flower Fair which represents all of the lands folklores, traditions and prideful supply of flowers. Medellin also hosts the biggest fashion show and fair in Colombia every year called Colombiamoda which has top fashion designers from outside Colombia and top national designers.

Don’t miss being around in the Coffee Triangle during their festive periods to experience the magnificent coffee culture! The Manizales fair, the second largest festival in Colombia after the Barranquilla Carnival and located in the Capital of the Caldas department is busy with bullfighting shows, craft stands, parades, partying, the world coffee pageant ( a huge beauty pageant) and an all in all joyful celebration of the areas traditions. There is also the Manizales Jazz festival which attracts international guests and the Manizales Film festival.

La Guajira has a very ethnic related festival every year opening up lives and traditions of the indigenous Wayu people, located on the most northern tip of Colombia in the beautiful desert lands next to the aquamarine seas, the Wayu Cultural Festival takes place every June- July and is full of handicrafts, music and rituals and customs.

In the lush wetlands of Los llanos, is the unique traditional festival of the Joropo (Torneo Internacional Del Joropo) which is a grand show of the Joropo traditions, consisting of music with harps, maracas, four string guitars and a bandola (instrument similar to the mandolin) and dances between couples where the woman swirl around their large flowing skirts. Another large part of Los llanos traditional celebrations is the ‘Coleos’, the Colombian version of a rodeo, where you can see Colombia’s cowboys racing after cattle to pull them down, horse parades and other such activities.

The black and white fair in Pasto is an artistic celebration of the mixture in Colombian heritage of African, Spanish and Indian descendents of this area. To start off the first day of the festival the town becomes one big water fight, the second day is a day for the children to celebrate and show off artistic and cultural heritage. The third and fourth day are days representing the mixture in the descendents of this region, with face and body painting of either black or white, and with town parades and processions. The last day of the fair is ended with a large talcum powder fight through out the town and with another parade consisting of impressive art figurines.

For homage to music, the Vallenato Legend Festival is full of Vallenato music and folk lore festivities. Vallenato is the music of accordions and the sound of traditional folklore of the Cesar department and celebrated in the capital of Valledupar.

For religious festivities the Holy week in Colombia is celebrated in every town and city however many people flock to UNESCO world heritage sites of the beautiful ‘white city’ of Popayan or the ‘lost in time’, sleepy treasure of Mompox. Holy week is also at large in both the beautiful and historical towns of Pamplona and Sabanalarga. Magnificent processions make up this holy devoted week.

Bogota, the metropolis capital of Colombia, is not short of grand festive dos, with its infamous and fantastically put together Ibero-American theatre festival, International book fair, and the largest outdoor rock fest of Latin America, Rock in the Park located in the city’s Simon Boliviar Park. Bogota also has a Carnival during August, which celebrates the founding of the city with dances, parades and festivities.

Close to Bogota, in the historically preserved and colonial built town of Villa de Leyva you can enjoy the annual Kite Flying Festival ( during the windy month of August) and the Light Festival which takes place in December and when the town lights up hundreds of candles in the town square, streets, doorways and balconies.

Cartagena also has an international film festival every year which draws in international crowds and judges, and is a fantastic and exciting affair under the warm Caribbean sun.

Down in the depths of the Amazonian jungle, the international Amazonian folk festival is a celebration of Amazonian folk music and traditions and folklore of the Amazonians extensive regions which neighbors Peru and Brazil.

These are just a taste of the many diverse festivals that Colombia has to offer, with many more festivals, fairs, beauty pageants, concerts, gastronomy fairs, arts and crafts events and monthly 3-day weekends that happen regularly and annually, in the cities and towns of our incredible country!

For more inquiries on Colombian Festivals and events, just ask us at Mantaraya.

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