Adventure Travel
Costa Rica's Top 5 Festivals
a
by Isabella Tree
26-06-2024
Adventure Travel
a
by Isabella Tree
26-06-2024
A variety of festivities, including bullfights, carnival rides, fireworks, marimba music, feasts, and joyful dancing, are held at smaller festivals around the nation throughout the year. During the holiday season, the celebrations reach their peak. The largest of these festivities, Fiestas de Zapote, takes place in the San José neighborhood of the same name and offers the biggest bullfights of the year along with roller coasters, concerts, and more. Fiestas Palmares is the longest celebration of the year in Costa Rica, and it's like Oktoberfest, but with more beer. Juego de los Diablitos is a celebration that pays homage to the Brunca culture along the southern Pacific coast.
If you're sick of the same old thing, Uvita hosts a tropical Burning Man style event called the Envision Festival in February. The Advil should be remembered.
At the conclusion of December, the capital of Costa Rica plays host to the country's most ferocious bulls for the yearly festival's largest rodeo. From the warm air outside the ring, we can hear the joyful sounds of amusement park rides, see couples of all ages dancing to live cumbia and la ranchera, and smell the delicious scent of pinchos de carne.
Picture Imagine Brazil's Carnaval taking place in the Caribbean port city of Limón in the middle of October, then add a few thousand revelers and you have Costa Rica's version of the festival. Limón Province's Afro-Caribbean culture is on full display in the town's annual parade, which features increasingly spectacular costumes and floats each year.
This weeklong meeting of artists, searchers of spirituality, and music lovers from all over the globe could be the perfect festival for you if you're interested in healing ceremonies, beach sunset celebrations, and jungle dance parties. Sacred movement, themed campsites, talks, yoga classes, five stages of music, and a wide array of performers are all part of this annual event that takes place in the Pacific Coast town of Uvita in February.
During these two weeks, Costa Rica hosts its largest cowboy festival. About one million people from all over the nation go to this festival every year to enjoy the horse parades, rodeos, musical performances, carnival attractions, and an endless supply of beer. Heck, some even say it's second only to Oktoberfest when it comes to beer supplied. Go on the adventure, but don't leave your valuables lying around; Palmares is a paradise for pickpockets.
The Brunca people's fight against Spanish conquest is commemorated in two Indigenous settlements, Boruca and Rey Curré, in December and January, respectively, through the Game of the Little Devils. The men of the Brunca people dress as "the devils," their forefathers, and wear elaborate masks and costumes that they make themselves. Once again, a man from Brunca donning a bull costume plays the role of the Spaniards. The bull and the devils have semi-choreographed "battles" in each town they visit during the four days. On the last day, there is a massive celebration where everyone drinks chicha, a fermented maize drink, out of hollow gourds to commemorate the devils' ultimate victory.
