Barranquilla Carnival

To call Barranquilla Carnival a huge party is a mighty understatement. The people of the Caribbean city take to the streets for dazzling parades of colourful costumes, salsa and cumbia music, folkloric and Afro-Colombian dances and infectious revelry.




The Carnival queen is chosen in the months beforehand and whoever plays the Dionysian figure of King Momo has to have been well known for his carnival spirit since childhood.



The Guacherna, on the Friday night before Carnival week, is a lantern parade with costumed cumbia dancers that kicks off a string of parades.



Carnival Saturday features the spectacular Battle of Flowers float parade, while the Great Parade of Tradition on Carnival Sunday is dedicated to the traditional folklore groups from along the shore of the Magdalena River. See spectacular Afro-Colombian dances and others like the Garabato, where sickle-carrying dancers in straw hats and white face paint perform an allegorical dance about life and death. On Monday, live bands compete for the Gold Congo prize at the Orchestras Festival.



When the feverish dancing dies down, the mysterious figure of Joselito Carnaval disappears with the ashes on the last day - Carnaval Tuesday - and both sober and drunken tears are shed.