The colorful and lively colonial city of Guanajuato is a cultural mecca and internationally known as the host city of the annual Festival Cervantino (Cervantino Festival), a state sponsored cultural festival that’s held each year in October.
The Cervantino Festival is one of the premier arts and cultural festivals in Mexico and Latin America and features performing arts from around the world with a special emphasis placed on artistic creations in the Spanish language.
The origins of the Cervantino Festival date back to the mid-20th century when short plays by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quijote, were performed in the city’s plazas. The festival was named in honor of Cervantes and officially founded in 1972, the same year that the original cultural program was expanded to include more international acts.
The Cervantino Festival encompasses a wide range of genres including opera, contemporary dance, theater, visual arts, film, literature and multimedia as well as a variety of workshops, exhibits and conferences. Events are held in venues throughout the city, both indoor and outdoor, including plazas, theaters, churches, historical buildings and several museum spaces.
Attend a performance at the historic and elegant Teatro Juarez (Juarez Theater) and admire the building’s lavish interior of carved wood, stained glass and gold.
Performances are also staged at the Teatro Principal (Principal Theater) and the Teatro Cervantes (Cervantes Theater). Outside the Cervantes Theater you can pose for photos alongside statues of Don Quijote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza.
Each of the city’s three major theaters hosts a full program of events during the festival and a less intensive program of events at other times throughout the year, so even if you are not in town during the Cervantino Festival, you can still appreciate the city’s rich arts and culture scene.
For its 44th edition in 2016, the International Cervantino Festival will be a “double cervantino celebration”, said director Jorge Volpi, because the festival will commemorate 400 years of the death of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
In this context, this year’s subject will be “Cervantes 400: From Madness to Idealism“, a phrase that makes reference to the adventures of “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha”, a work that has marked the history of the most important arts festival in all Latin America. And due to this fact, Spain will be this year’s guest of honor.
Source: VisitMexico
