Puno Festivals

The city of Puno, dubbed Peru's Folkloric Capital, is renowned for its colourful and spectacular festivals, rich expressions of traditional music, dance, and culture. Festivals in Puno, in particular February's Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria (Virgin of the Candles), see thousands of people dressed in colourful pre-Columbian costumes and dancing along the city streets for hours and hours.

The uniqueness of the city as a focal point for folklore might be a consequence of a strong melting pot. A melting pot of native culture: the two largest Andean ethnic groups --the Quechuas from the north, the Aymaras from the south-- converge in Puno. This reflects in a folklore that takes its joyfulness from the Aymara and the ancestral soberness from the Quechua.

The most popular and noteworthy of Puno's festivals is the Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria. In spite of its Catholic appearance, it's related to the pre-Hispanic farming cycles of planting and harvesting (worshipping Pachamama or Mother Earth), as well as with the region’s mining activity. As with many other Andean manifestations, a strong duality prevails in the Virgin of the Candles Festival: on the one hand, a Catholic aspect, imposed during the Spanish Colony by the Conquistadors; on the other, the adaptation of this Catholic tradition to the magical and religious beliefs of the Andean people.

The Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria gathers more than 200 groups of musicians and dancers to celebrate the Mamacha Candelaria. The first nine days are dedicated to church decoration and organization of banquets and fireworks. On the main day, February 2, the virgin is led through the city in a striking procession that includes priests and altar boys, Christians and pagans, while musicians and dancers perform and dance along the route and throughout the city.

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.

Puno Week, in November, celebrates the birth of the city and the foundation of the Inca Empire. The main event consists of a procession from the shores of Lake Titicaca to the city's stadium. Dances and music are always present during the week.

With excerpts from Festivities, Music, and Folk Art in Perú by PromPerú.

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