Afro-Colombian Cultural Events: Festivals and Annual Celebrations in Colombia

Petronio Álvarez Festival

Cali, Valle del Cauca · August

The largest festival dedicated to the music of Colombia's Pacific Coast. It celebrates marimba de chonta traditions, ancestral songs and the Afro-Pacific culinary heritage of southern Colombia.

San Pacho Festival

Quibdó, Chocó · September – October

An Afro-Chocoano celebration recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage. It brings together chirimía music, community parades, popular religious traditions and the collective memory of Afro communities in Chocó.

Marimba and Traditional Songs Festival

Guapi / Buenaventura / Tumaco · June – July / September

A gathering dedicated to the marimba de chonta and the ancestral singing traditions of Colombia's Pacific Coast, featuring direct participation from tradition bearers and master musicians.

Vean Ve!

Guapi, Cauca · December 22

A community-based festival celebrating marimba music and traditional Pacific songs, with a special focus on the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge.

Barranquilla Carnival

Barranquilla, Atlántico · February – March

One of Colombia's most important cultural celebrations, deeply influenced by Afro-Caribbean traditions. Cumbia, Congo dances and traditional performances make this carnival a landmark event.

National Porro Festival

San Pelayo, Córdoba · June – July

One of the most important musical gatherings in Colombia's Caribbean region. The festival celebrates porro, an iconic musical genre of Córdoba and Sucre, through traditional brass bands, parades, competitions and cultural activities that highlight the region's Afro, Indigenous and rural heritage.

National Gaita Festival

Ovejas, Sucre · October

A festival dedicated to preserving and promoting the gaita and drum traditions of Colombia's Caribbean Coast. It brings together traditional groups, cultural knowledge keepers and younger generations around one of the region's most representative musical expressions.

National Bullerengue Festival

Puerto Escondido, Córdoba · June

A celebration of bullerengue, one of the most emblematic musical and dance traditions of Afro-descendant communities in the Colombian Caribbean. Singers, drummers and tradition bearers gather to strengthen the transmission of ancestral knowledge.

Green Moon Festival

San Andrés Island · September

An Afro-Caribbean festival celebrating Raizal identity through music, dance and the cultural traditions of Colombia's insular Caribbean.

Cumbia Fest

San Jacinto, Bolívar · January

A festival dedicated to cumbia in the region where the genre was born, highlighting traditional music, collective memory and gaita traditions.

Blacks and Whites Carnival

Pasto, Nariño · January

A heritage carnival celebrating Colombia's cultural diversity, rooted in Afro, Indigenous and mestizo traditions.

Negro Fest

Bogotá / Medellín · May / September

An urban Afro culture festival that brings together music, entrepreneurship, gastronomy and artistic expressions from the African diaspora.

Gracias África

Bogotá · January

A cultural gathering celebrating African and Afro-descendant heritage through music, dance and community connection.

Afro Film Showcase – Bogotá Cinematheque

Bogotá D.C. · May

An annual showcase of Afro, Raizal and African diaspora cinema, focusing on identity, memory and representation.

Afro Kunta Kinte International Community Film Festival

Various cities · October

A community-based Afro film festival that promotes storytelling rooted in Afro-descendant territories and communities.

Quibdó Africa Film Festival (QAFF)

Quibdó, Chocó · September

A film festival dedicated to African and Afro-descendant cinema with a strong focus on community engagement, education and local impact.

FLECHO – Chocó Reading and Writing Festival

Chocó (travelling festival) · August

An Afro-centred gathering that promotes reading, oral traditions, writing and critical thinking through the voices and perspectives of Chocó's communities.