After 17 days of international theater performances, the 14th bi-annual Ibero-american Theater Festival came to a close in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota on Sunday.
For more than two weeks, Bogota hosted 45 international theater companies from 25 different countries. Among them were 39 Colombian companies. According to Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper, performances of theater, music and dance were seen throughout the city, in both indoor and outdoor spaces, with 14 neighborhood parks amongst the locations.
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According to Colombia’s El Pais newspaper, the most popular performances at the festival included ‘La Verità’ from Compagnia Finzi Pasca, a contemporary circus troupe from Switzerland which used a huge painting by artist Salvador Dali as a backdrop for a show full of magic and humor.
A concert from Colombian musical group Monsieur Perine was the closing act of the Iberoamericano Festival, with various genres of music performed including jazz, swing and pop in Simon Bolivar Park.
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The Iberoamericano Festival was also the setting for a congress held by the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA), one of the largest global networks of representatives from the performing arts world, including theater directors, producers, artist managers and performing arts organizations.
After a successful congress in São Paulo in 2009, the society decided to hold one of their twice-yearly conferences in Bogota for its cultural vibrancy and use of the arts in social development projects. They welcomed over 400 guests to the conference, the first ever to be held in Colombia.