(ACOM) — A total of 600 artists will be present for the seventh edition of the City of Mérida Festival, to honor the 477th anniversary of the city’s founding, with 22 days of artistic and cultural events.
Renán Barrera Concha, municipal president, announced that 600 artists — 500 Yucatecans and 100 foreigners — have been invited to hold a series of presentations at 52 venues, ranging from cultural centers, theaters, parks and streets.
Barrera Concha said that as part of the attractions, a program has been established that includes music, dance, theater, folklore, painting, photographic exhibitions, a film exhibition and a colloquium on cultural and urban issues, which will take place from January 5 to 27 .
As every year, the celebration will begin with the traditional dawn in which about 250 troubadours, singers and minstrels will participate in the serenade in the Historic Center and the walk from Santa Lucia Park to the Plaza Grande to honor the city.
He stressed that this year the Festival will be dedicated to the “faces of Merida” which establishes a dialogue with the culture and the contributions that the Yucatecan capital has received from the migrations and ethnic groups that influenced the community’s life, as is the case of the Lebanese, Korean, Spanish, Chinese and Cuban colonies and their transcendence throughout history.
“The celebrations will include a Catholic religious ceremony, a Solemn Session of City Council, whose main speaker will be the journalist Roberto MacSwiney Salgado, and the presentation of Yucatecan, national and international artists coming from Spain, Canada, Cuba, the United States and Colombia,” he informed.
The events include the presentation of the circus ballet Tabarnak, from Cirque Alfonse de Canadá (one of the most important academies in the world), which will be presented for the first time in Mexico.
There will also be Mexican jazz and folkloric music with the Bolling Suite from the United States and the “Tata Vasco” orchestra from Michoacán respectively, as well as a magna vaquería yucateca, traditional serenade in Santa Lucía, the presentation of local bands and bands from the decade of the 60s and 70s.
As a main course, Nuyorican salsero Willie Colón, singer Flor Amargo and Cañaveral, will be presented in the Historic Center on Sunday Jan. 13.
In the same way, the Contemporary Dance group: Macho Man XXI will be presented, a highly awarded expression in different international festivals for its choreography.
The Merida 2019 Festival also includes a gastronomic show and a fashion show with for creations and designs of the most renowned Yucatecan companies and an exhibition of traditional clothing, guayaberas for women and men.
In 22 days of festivities there will be a literary circuit, presentation of short films in parks and suburban communities of Mérida, workshops and exhibitions of visual arts, regional theater, popular dances and children’s activities in the zoos and public places of the city.
Source: ACOM
