Quick. Think of South America.
And just like that we have most probably filled your head with exotic colors and sounds and aromas. Because South America is quite frankly a little extra when it comes to passion and celebration. It walks the line between the comfortably modern and the outrageously historical like no other continent on earth. And there are few more intriguing places to attend a festival than South America.
When you finally book your Latin trip you might want to make sure your dates fall around these top festivals in South America. (Keep reading as they have a little something flamboyant for everyone!)
Argentina
ArteBA
An art event in the fashionable Palermo district of Buenos Aires that attracts tens of thousands of visitors and includes guided tours, public workshops for children as well as live performance and discussions.
Buenos Aires Tango
The heritage of the tango is celebrated every year in Buenos Aires. The World Cup of Tango (Tango Mundial) is held but tens of thousands of people will be dancing in the streets for two weeks.
Music and dance shows fill every crack and corner of the city, and there are hundreds of free classes throughout the city while the festival is on.
Fiesta de la Nieve
In Bariloche, the height of the ski season falls in July and August, and the National Snow Festival includes ski and boarding competitions but the avant and apres ski takes everything to the next level with live music, chocolate tastings, and massive fireworks displays.
Fiesta de la Vendimia
Mendoza is one of the world’s leading wine producers, and wine connoisseurs descend on the town once a year as the festival begin with a blessing of the vineyards by the Archbishop of Mendoza and continue with gauchos in traditional costumes, folk bands, the annual ‘Reina de la Venimia’ beauty pageant and… well, WINE.
Gaucho Festival in San Antonio de Areco
Gauchos riding the edges of Parque Crillio the cobbled streets filled with horses rushing past houses. There is also raucous dancing and music.
Chile
Tapati Rapa Nui
Easter Island’s biggest festival is beautifully traditional but nevertheless, it welcomes visitors with open arms. The festival dates back further than anyone can remember and it now incorporates elements that might surprise a student of Polynesian history. Traditional carving competitions and canoe races sit happily next to modern horse races and a triathlon
During the Haka Pei contestants slide down steep hills on banana tree trunks at speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kmh).
Ecuador
Fiestas de Quito
Quito’s foundation date is 6 December, and the city prepares for this auspicious occasion with a week of celebrations leading up to the anniversary.
Expect (mostly free) concerts, parties, exhibitions, theater shows, and a go-cart race
Inti Raymi
The Incas worshipped the sun and during their winter solstice, they honor the imminent return of their favorite deity with the Inca festival of the Sun. This is the beginning of the Incan New Year and the festival will last for nine days.
Every June a lucky actor portrays Sapa Inca (the emperor) and is then carried in a golden chariot from Qorikancha temple, through streets filled with music, prayers, flowers, dancing, and ladies sweeping away evil spirits with their brooms, to the top of Sacsayhuaman hill outside Cusco. The ancient Inca ritual of praying for the return of the sun is then re-enacted in the ancient Inca fortress.
In Otavalo, the center of indigenous culture in Ecuador, festivities begin with a ritual cleansing the Peguche waterfall before the dancing and drinking.
It has become the largest street festival in South America.
New Year Quiteños Style
In Quito giant dummies parade through the city before being ritually set alight (in fires that can burn for days) as a symbol of the old year. Young men dress up in mini-skirts, stockings and gigantic plastic {insert that thought}. They are called viudas (widows) and it is an extraordinary site in this fairly conservative country!
Carnival
Characterized by hundreds of children called diablillos (little devils) who roam the streets armed with water bombs in every shape and form you must prepare to get soaked in this carnival.
It is the biggest party of the year with all the parade and firework trimmings.
Salon de Chocolate
Ecuador does not produce more high-quality chocolate than anywhere else on earth without having a festival to celebrate the fact! Thousands of people descend on Quito to enjoy exclusive chocolate tastings from big and small Ecuadorian producers, and the chocolate sculpture competition is particularly impressive (even from the dizzy heights of a sugar rush).
Semana Santa
Ecuador’s most important festival has its largest public celebration in Quito. During the Jesus de Gran Poder procession, 800 purple-robed Cucurochos bring an image of Jesus to the Quito cathedral. The particular Ecuadorean synthesis of Catholic rites and indigenous traditions is on display everywhere with painted and costumed devils driven from a church… only to meet up later to eat drink and be ritually cleansed.
Yamor
The largest market town of Ecuador, Otavalo hosts the Yamor Festival in September. A tradition that is equal parts Pagan fertility ritual and Catholic Spring festival for Nina Maria (virgin patron of Otavalo), it takes place once the first crop of the year has been sown.
The country’s most prominent contemporary music festival is held at the edge of town, and young men swim the 4km of freezing water naked (insulating their bodies with fat) as part of this celebration.
Peru
Fiestas Patrias in Peru
Every year on the 28th of July Peru marks its 1821 independence with a 21-gun salute which is a general signal to Peruvians to down tools and start celebrating.
There are parades by the Armed Forces and Police, and an address from the President and everyone has not one but TWO full days of work.
Mistura
Do you live to eat? Head to Peru in September for the incredible culinary tradition of Mistura. From the famous ceviche (marinated raw fish) to cuy (deep fried guinea pig) and sanguche de chicharron (the local version of a bacon sandwich).
While the festival began as a showcase of the very best in Peruvian cuisine, from traditional dishes based on ancestral recipes and modern takes on classic Peruvian recipes it now also represents the best of broader Latin American cuisine.. and then there is the fusion. Chifa (Chinese) and Nikkei (Japanese).
This festival will leave you with a delicious understanding of what all the fuss around Peruvian food is all about.
The National Paso Horse Tournament
A festival at the Mamacona stables on the southern edge of Lima, next to the pre-Inca sacred site of Pachacamac, it attracts an international crowd of equestrian movers and shakers – all keen to see the best in breed horses doing their thing.
The marinera dance (closely associated with Paso tradition) is also showcased and there is a celebratory feast at the end of every day.
Semana Santa
In Ayacucho, this important Peruvian tradition is taken to a dizzying height. The streets are literally carpeted in flowers while giant processions happen throughout the week with icons of saints carried across the blossoms.
On the Saturday before Easter Sunday, a massive candlelit procession with an image of Jesus carried to the city’s Cathedral ends in a firework display signaling the start of the Resurrection party.
Señor de los Milagros
It’s a miracle! In Lima, a freed Angolan slave painted the image of a black Christ on the cross on a wall in the 17th Century. Despite massive earthquakes and many attempts at vandalism, the artwork has remained miraculously intact. To celebrate this, thousands of devout Catholics for all over Peru begin a procession from the Church of Las Nazarenas, with 2500 members of the Lord of the Miracles brotherhood carrying the two-stone artwork through Lima to the church of La Merced.
This is one of the biggest Catholic festivals in the world but if you want to blend in as a woman do wear a purple dress with a white robe and men should don a purple tie. (Purple is the traditional color of the Nazarene nuns who care for the image throughout the year)
Prepare to eat lots of traditional Turron nougat and picarones.
Virgen de la Candelaria
Puno hosts one of the Andes’ largest celebrations with around 40,000 dancers and 5,000 musicians every year. It is a great example of how indigenous people took Catholic traditions and made them their own.
The Virgin is called MamaCanchi and is closely associated with the traditional Pachamama (Mother Earth) deity. The festival centers on the myth that Lake Titicaca was the founding point of the Inca Empire and it is a fantastic date for anyone with interest in traditional culture.
Images via Tung Wong, Shot by Cerqueira, Pixabay, Pixabay, Andrea Leon, Chandler Hilken, Pixabay, Pixabay, Sander Crombach, Pixabay, Pixabay, Pixabay, Pixabay, Pixabay Pablo García Saldaña