Ben McIntosh

Add a Touch of Festival to a Tour of Peru

With this incredibly diverse country celebrating around 3,000 festivals a year, a trip to Peru anytime is a fascinating culture experience. But with June to October seeing some of the most flamboyant and diverse festivals the country has to offer, visiting at this time adds a special festive touch to a Peru tour.

Adventure Festival
30 June
Ancash

This adrenaline pumped festival features the roughest and wildest adventure a Peru tour has to offer. Including skiing, rafting, mountain biking, paragliding and hand gliding, all set against the majestic backdrop of the White Cordillera.

Virgen del Carmen Festival
15-16 July
Paucartambo, Cusco Region

Experience the colourful procession along typical Peruvian village streets to celebrate and worship the Virgin of El Carmen or Mamacha Carmen. Enjoy Music and singing in Quechua, from groups representing passages of the history of Peru. On the central day, the Virgin blesses the attendants and casts off demons (acted by village people) that perform risky acrobatics on roof tops. Stay for the impressive grand finale where a war against demons erupts, but of course the faithful triumph!

Vilcas Raymi
28-30 July
Recognised in whole of Peru

This festival consists in the staging of a play that represents the battle between the Inca’s and the Chanka´s and the triumph of the Incas. Everyone gets involved, especially children. It starts off with ancestral rituals like the preparation of qora's maize liquor and Tinkachi performances (a Peruvian style of music). The open-air festival in the evening is an amazing spectacle with many live performances of music and dance. In the daytime there are many activities, including a car race, a food market serving Peruvian specialities, a donkey race, and much more.

Lord of Miracles
18-19 October
Lima

Almost any tour in Peru will take in the capital, Lima. And in October tens of thousands of people take to the streets in downtown Lima wearing purple tunics, singing hymns and praying for the ‘Lord of Miracles’. This festival dates back to colonial times where a slave from Angola drew an image of Christ on the walls of a hut in the Pachacamilla plantation near Lima.

The image stayed on the walls even though many tried to erase it and as a result it was worshipped.

Today the celebration is one of the largest in Latin America.

International Spring Festival
October
Trujillo

Celebrate springtime in Peru in style with the acclaimed International Spring Festival in October in Trujillo. To mark the beginning of spring, Peruvians celebrate throughout the country, but Trujillo in the north has gained a reputation for holding a festival of the greatest splendour.

During the week-long festival, streets and homes are filled with decorations, floats are paraded through the city and troupes of schoolchildren dance through the streets, led by the beauty queen of the spring pageant. The beauty queen is always flanked by cheer leaders who travel there from all over the world to show off their skills.

For further information on Peru visit http://www.tucantravel.com/

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