- From February 22 to 25 is held the carnival of Barranquilla, in Colombia.
- The event is expected to attract close to 1.5 million people to the Caribbean city.
- Carnival, inscribed on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity by Unesco, is the largest cultural event in Colombia.
If the king of carnivals is Brazilian, his dolphin may well be Colombian. Celebrated since the 19th century, the Barranquilla Carnival is the second largest in Latin America, after that of Rio de Janeiro. The event, inscribed on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity by Unesco, remains little known in France. A trend that has tended to reverse since the 2016 peace agreement ending half a century of civil war and marking the return of tourists. The carnival of the Caribbean city in the north of the country stands out thanks to its naturalness, its diversity and its own atmosphere.
Reputation that Barranquilla puts into play from Saturday February 22 and for four days, with the sole watchword for the nearly 1.5 million carnival lovers expected: to party in color and in music. “In mid-January, the start of pre-carnival, the mayor symbolically handed over the keys to the city to the queen of the festivities. While reading a fake official text, she ordered the residents of Barranquilla to have fun ", explains Fabian Suarez, founder of the association Casa Kumbe, which organizes a Barranquilla carnival in Paris, Friday, February 28 (to the Chinese , in Montreuil, from 8:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.).
Music everywhere: cumbia, puya, reggaeton…
The instruction has since been applied to the letter by the inhabitants who have been waiting for this event for many months. Fabian Suarez, also a Colombian musician and ethnomusicologist, ensures that the city is as if paralyzed. “Apart from the costume shops, all the shops are closing. It is 30 ° C during the day and 26 in the evening, it is overflowing with people in the streets and bars, everyone is outside. There is music everywhere, traditional and current like cumbia, puya, reggaeton… ”
Each district has its troop of musicians, its queen and its dancers. All year round they have developed music, choreography, costumes and coaches. "The Colombians are unleashed, they throw flour on them! There is a really good-natured atmosphere, recalls Sarah, blogger about Sarah about her travels, who was there last year. As for the costumes, there is something for everyone: typical, eccentric… ”And for good reason. In Barranquilla, the rule is that there is none! "It's not like Rio and Paris where carnivals follow themes, warns Fabian Suarez. There, everything is allowed and the creations are reinvented each year. It is a way to celebrate spring and life in all its forms, without limits. A diversity that echoes the history of Colombia, a fusion of indigenous indigenous, European and African cultures that we obviously find in the parades.
Battle of flowers and giant parade
On the other hand, each edition follows a well-established program with highlights that return each year. For example, the first day opens with the Battle of Flowers, a giant parade in the main street, where flowers are thrown in the public as a symbol of peace. The next day, the grand parade of tradition and folklore pays homage to ancestral customs. “The particularity of this annual meeting is that it is on a human scale. The stands are full but rather small. We are really located a few meters from the parade. We feel that it is above all for the locals and the country rather than for tourism, ”says Sarah.
“The displays are linked and are very diverse. There is in particular that of the gay community or that of the children, because inclusion and transmission are very important aspects ", insists Fabian Suarez who specifies that if there are about fifty official events, it is impossible to count all those in off that punctuate the days and nights of the carnival. Non-stop for four days, until the death of Joselito comes to close the party: embodied by a doll or an actor, the symbol of carnival and reveler is extinguished under the (false) sobs of the crowd. After the carnival, Barranquilla no longer responds.
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