Major festivities during Summer

Marinera Dance Festival
Probably the most popular traditional dance in Peru, particularly in the coast, the Marinera borrows elements from African, Spanish and native cultures. Rooted in Creole symbolism, it has influences from Spanish Fandango, French Minuet, Afro-Peruvian Zamacueca, and Andean Huaynos. The name Marinera (the sailor) was dubbed at end of the 19th century by the satirical writer, Abelardo Gamarra, known as El Tunante (the rascal), in homage to Peru's greatest naval hero, the Admiral Miguel Grau.

The Marinera dance is energetic and elegant. The man wears a wide-brimmed straw hat and poncho, and the woman, barefoot, wears a lace Moche dress. The couple evolves in a complex choreography of synchronized sequences, while keeping time with a handkerchief grasped in one hand. The man, hat in hand, surrounds a smiling and coquettish woman, who seems to accept his advances. However, she keeps escaping at the final moment, overflowing grace and sensuality, and the couple never comes into physical contact.

The dance is slightly different from region to region. In Lima, for example, is of moderate and elegant movements, while in Trujillo and the North, it imitates the cadence of Peruvian Paso Horses.

Marinera festivals are held all over the country, the best-known being the Trujillo one.

Virgen de la Candelaria
For 18 days, the highland town of Puno, nestled on the shores of Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 3.870 meters above sea level, is becomes the Folk Capital of the Americas. The festival gathers more than 200 groups of musicians and dancers to celebrate the Mamacha Candelaria. For the first nine days, the mayordomos (those in charge of organizing the festivities), decorate the church and pay for Mass, banquets and fireworks displays. On the main day, February 2, the virgin is led through the city in a colorful procession comprising priests, altar boys, the faithful, Christians and pagans carefully maintaining the hierarchy. This is the moment when the troupes of musicians and dancers take the scene, performing and dancing throughout the city.

The festival is linked to the pre-Hispanic agricultural cycles of sowing and harvesting, as well as mining activities in the region. It is the result of a blend of respectful Aymara gaiety and ancestral Quechua seriousness. The dance of the demons, or diablada, the main dance of the festival, was allegedly dreamed up by a group of miners trapped down a mine who, in their desperation, resigned their souls to the Virgen de la Candelaria. The dancers, blowing zampoña panpipes and clad in spectacular costumes and outlandish masks, make their offerings to the earth goddess Pachamama. The most impressive masks, for their terrifying aspect, are those of the deer fitted with long twisted horns similar to the Devil, and Jacancho, the god of minerals. During the farewell, or cacharpari, the dancers who fill the streets finally head to the cemetery to render homage to the dead (taken from Festivities, Music, and Folk Art in Perú by PromPerú).

Lunahuaná Adventure Sports Festival
The Lunahuaná valley, in the province of Cañete (department of Lima), 150 km south of the capital, is an ideal spot for adventure sports. The Cañete river allows many canoeing disciplines, as well as reel and fishnet fishing. The festival -that takes place between the end of February and the beginning of March- also features paragliding, trekking, and mountain biking championships.

Cañete, the main wine producing zone in the Lima department, also offers visits to the vineyards and a succulent local cuisine.

Wine Festival in Ica
This festival is a celebration of the abundance of grapes and wine in the region of Ica (a four-hour drive south of Lima), where persevering efforts in local vineyards have spread greenery across
vast tracts of once bone-dry desert. The Wine Festival (Festival de la Vendimia) involves fairs, competitions, processions of floats, musical festivals and parties where guests dance the Afro- Peruvian festejo. One of the major attractions of the event is the Queen of the Wine Festival beauty pageant. Accompanied by her hand-maidens, the beauty queen treads grapes in a vat in the time-honored tradition to extract the juice that will eventually be fermented.

Apart from the delicious local sweets known as tejas, made from pecans or candied fruits, filled with caramel and covered with sugar icing, those attending the event can try pisco, the aromatic and tasty grape brandy that originated in this part of southern Peru four centuries ago (taken from Festivities, Music, and Folk Art in Perú by PromPerú).

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