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| Music-filled processions and dancing parades |
The hedonistic Carnaval de Barranouilla is one of South
America's most explosive festivals and the largest in
Colombia. On Saturday, La Battala de Flores (Flower
Battle) starts the celebrations in which symbolic
bullets of war are replaced with the flowers of peace.
Sunday sees thousands of costume-clad revealers join
La Gran Parada (The Great Parade). The cavalcade
features drum-beat dances and animal masks
painted in black, red, white and yellow. On Monday, a
24-hour open-air concert of pumping Caribbean
music dominates El Festival de Orquetas before the
figurative burial of Joselito Carnaval on Tuesday.
Joselito was, so the story goes, a hard-working
Barranquilla coach driver who drank too much during
Carnival one year. On seeing his slumped body, the
merry-makers assume he is dead. They realize their
mistake when they hear him snore, so decide to
conduct a mock funeral cortege as a joke. Today
crowds of 'mourners' cry over the death of the
coachman. The re-enactment signifies the end of the
carnival - when Barranquilla can finally get some sleep.
More info: Barranquilla Carnival
More info: Barranquilla Carnival
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