Festivals in Cuba
Cuba hosts some of the most exciting arts events in the region. The Havana Bienniale is a world-renowned month-long series of art exhibitions. This diffuse, gradually unfolding, month-long series of art exhibitions bring contemporary flesh to Havana’s gorgeously crumbling bones. It generally includes exhibitions of outdoor sculptures installed along the length of the Malecon as well as happenings, talks and parties in public and private venues throughout the city. The social whirl aside, we can arrange tours of Havana’s best artists in their studios, visits to collectors and galleries (both state and public). Our curator-guides can educate you in the finer points of Cuba’s Kafka-esque art-dealer scene and lead you to what you seek with a bloodhound-like nose for your artistic tastes. In April, remote coastal Gibara hosts Latin America’s coolest Indie film festival, the annual Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre, celebrating low-budget independent film. Started in 2003 by Humberto Solás, the enfant terrible of Cuban cinema, it has now been revived by Jorge Perugorria, one of Cuba’s national acting treasures. Shortly after Cine Pobre in May, Holguin celebrates local musicians, actors, artists, writers and dancers with the Romerias de Mayo, led by the Hermanos Saíz Association. In Santiago, the vibrant Manana Cuba fiesta twins Afro-Cuban Folklore music with incomers from electronica and dubstep. This is just one festival in an endless string of mini music festivals that celebrate every genre imaginable in this cradle of Cuban music.