7 of Latin America's Unmissable Festivals

Festivals are woven into the fabric of life throughout Latin America — from the Bolivian Altiplano and the Peruvian Andes to the far reaches of Easter Island. They’re events where communities come together to celebrate faith, heritage and identity, often blending Indigenous traditions with influences brought by European colonisers centuries ago. And for travellers, they’re an opportunity to experience local culture at its most vivid. Streets fill with music and dance, as performers parade through cities, towns and village squares, while age-old rituals are brought to life before cheering crowds. Here are seven of the best.

1. Oruro Carnival, Bolivia

When: Most events in the six days leading up to Ash Wednesday (4-10 February 2027)
Why: For demonic dances in the high Andes

Bolivia’s Oruro Carnival has to be one of the most eye-catching celebrations in Latin America. Originally an Indigenous festival of the Uru people, it centred on a pilgrimage to the sacred mountains surrounding Oruro, where participants prayed for protection from deities associated with toads, lizards and snakes. When the Spanish arrived, they blended these traditions with Christian beliefs, gradually shaping the modern-day Oruro Carnival.

Its centrepiece is the Diablada — the Dance of Devils — during which revellers don elaborate demonic masks and costumes. As many as 28,000 dancers, divided into 48 groups, parade for three days and three nights to the Shrine of the Tunnel, a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgen del Socavón, Oruro’s patron saint of miners. Medieval-style mystery plays then recount the Spanish conquest of Peru and the triumph of the Archangel Michael over the Devil. The result is a riot of music, colour and choreography that transforms the high-altitude mining city into one of Latin America’s most extraordinary festival stages.

2. Chocolate Festival, Belize

When: Mid-May (14-17 May 2027)
Why: For chocolate, in all its forms

Each May, Belize hosts what may be many travellers’ dream event: a three-day festival dedicated to chocolate. The Toledo district is Belize’s chocolate capital, and cacao has such a long history here that it was once used as currency. Proceedings kick off in the district capital, Punta Gorda, with the Wine & Chocolate Gala, an evening of indulgence where Belize’s finest chocolatiers pair their creations with carefully selected wines. The following day, the streets are taken over by the Chocolate Street Fête, which includes live music performances and stalls selling sweet treats and traditional foods inspired by the region’s Maya heritage. While the ancient Maya primarily consumed chocolate as a drink, they also incorporated cacao into rich savoury sauces served with dishes such as chimole, a deep, dark meat stew. It’s a reminder that there’s far more to chocolate here than dessert.

3. Noche de los Brujos, Mexico

When: First Friday in March
Why: For spiritual cleansing and witchy souvenirs

The languid lakeside city of Catemaco is Mexico’s witchcraft capital. The area draws sorcerers and shamans from far and wide, particularly each March, when the slopes of Cerro Mono Blanco (White Monkey Hill) play host to the annual Noche de los Brujos festival. The brujos and brujas (witches) of Catemaco practice a unique blend of Indigenous paganism with Catholic influences — it’s not unusual to step into a brujo’s shop and spot pentagrams hanging on the wall beside pictures of the Virgin Mary. On the night, many witches set up tents and stalls on the slopes of Cerro Mono Blanco where you can take part in a limpia (spiritual cleansing ceremony), brave a tarot reading or browse magical artefacts in one of the many makeshift stalls that spring up around the site. After all, what better souvenir than a bewitched amulet, voodoo doll or magical tincture?

4. Fiesta de la Candelaria, Peru

When: 1-12 February 2027
Why: For psychedelic costumes

The city of Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, is the atmospheric setting for this festival, which honours both the Virgin Mary and Pachamama, the Andean mother goddess. The lakeside city is widely regarded as Peru’s folkloric capital, and nowhere is that more evident than during the Fiesta de la Candelaria (Candlemas). For nearly two weeks, Puno erupts into a kaleidoscope of music, dance and colour as hundreds of troupes parade in elaborate costumes. Bug-eyed masks, silver-plated devils and richly embroidered outfits compete for attention, accompanied by brass bands, pounding drums and the haunting sound of panpipes. Flower carpets decorate the streets, while dancers and musicians fill every corner of the city, creating an atmosphere that feels part religious pilgrimage, part epic street party.

5. Inti Raymi, Peru

When: 24 June 2027
Why: For reliving the pomp and ceremony of the Inca Empire

To get a taste of pre-colonial Peruvian life, you can’t do much better than Inti Raymi, a modern revival of the Inca Festival of the Sun held every June to mark the southern hemisphere’s winter solstice. The celebration sees Indigenous communities from across the Andes gather in Cusco — the former capital of the Inca Empire — for a day of processions, music and elaborate traditional dress.

Festivities begin at Coricancha — once the most important temple in the Inca world and the centre of sun worship — where celebrants dressed in patterned tunics and tasselled crowns parade through the city. From there, the celebrations move through Plaza de Armas before culminating at Sacsayhuamán, the vast hilltop fortress overlooking Cusco. Along the way, there are speeches in the Quechua language, traditional dances, coca-leaf reading ceremonies and even a mock llama sacrifice. With thousands of performers, a sea of spectacular costumes and the Andes forming a beautifully dramatic backdrop, this has to be one of South America’s most sensational historical re-enactments.

6. Tapati Rapa Nui, Rapa Nui, Chile

When: First half of February (2027 dates TBC)
Why: For traditional sports and Polynesian culture

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is Latin America’s most distant outpost. Though part of Chile, it sits 2,200 miles west of the mainland in the South Pacific and has a culture more closely aligned with Polynesia than South America. The best time to experience the traditions of the Rapa Nui people is during the island’s main festival, Tapati Rapa Nui. Held for a week each February, the event celebrates the island’s Polynesian heritage through a brilliant — and often bonkers — programme of sport, music and dance. Rival clans compete throughout in the hope of having their chosen candidates crowned Tapati Queen and King.

Events range from canoe races and contests on traditional bodyboards to horse racing and the hair-raising haka pei, in which competitors hurtle down steep hillsides on sledges made from banana trunks. As night falls, the focus shifts from sport to celebration, with music, dancing and cultural performances before the festival culminates in a colourful closing ceremony.

7. Festa de Iemanjá, Brazil

When: 2 February
Why: For samba music and Afro-Brazilian culture

Of all Latin America’s varied folk traditions, perhaps the most enchanting is Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion that combines elements of Catholic ritual with West African traditions brought to Brazil by enslaved people. Like samba and capoeira, Candomblé is a powerful expression of Afro-Brazilian identity, and its heartland is Salvador, in the state of Bahía. Every 2 February, hundreds of thousands of Candomblé practitioners gather on Salvador’s Rio Vermelho beach, dressed in blue-and-white robes and carrying baskets of flowers, which they place onto waiting wooden fishing boats as offerings to Iemanjá, the goddess of the sea. The main time for these offerings is sunrise, although many revellers avoid the need for an early alarm clock by staying up all night, drinking cachaça (sugarcane spirit), eating acarajé (bean fritters) and dancing to the sound of samba.