Barranquilla Carnival

UNESCO Masterpiece Of The Oral And Intangible Heritage Of Humanity (2003, Inscribed 2008). The Second Largest Carnival In South America After Rio, Four Days Before Ash Wednesday, With The Battle Of The Flowers, Gran Parada And Great Fantasy Parade. · Barranquilla, Atlantico

The Carnaval de Barranquilla is the second-largest carnival in South America after Rio, and it is a UNESCO-recognised piece of living heritage. It runs for four days before Ash Wednesday, so the dates move with Easter and fall somewhere between January and March. It began in the 1800s as a mix of Spanish, Indigenous and African traditions, and it still centres on dance groups and masks: the Garabato, the Marimonda, the Congo, and rhythms like cumbia and mapale. The big parades run on Via 40, with paid grandstand seats and standing room along the kerb. It is hot, loud, wet with foam and cornstarch, and crowded. The festival is the reason to come: for the rest of the year Barranquilla is a working port and business city, with only the carnival museums and a few local dance groups to show for it. Book far ahead, because rooms and tickets climb sharply as the date approaches. Come with a plan for each day, protect your phone and eyes, and pace the heat and the drinking, since four days is long. Keep expectations honest outside those days.

Caribbean city on the Magdalena river mouth, with the main parades on Via 40 and the Carnival Museum in the old customs house, Barranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia

The festival has a fixed order over its four days: Saturday for the Batalla de Flores, Sunday for the Gran Parada de Tradicion, Monday for the Gran Parada de Comparsas, and Tuesday for the burial of Joselito Carnaval. Parades usually start in the afternoon and run into the evening. Street parties run later. Museums keep normal daytime hours outside carnival and some close on Mondays; confirm locally, as exact times change each year.

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