Colombia’s 201st Independence Day celebrations Wednesday offer a variety of cultural events around the country.
The capital city of Bogota will celebrate Afro-Colombian and traditional culture and African heritage with a grand tribute concert on the country’s Independence Day, July 20.
More than 2,300 people are expected to gather for the concert to celebrate the day, which will honor traditional music genres such as bullerengue and palenquera, newspaper El Tiempo reported.
Bogota will also host the “Festival Teatro e Cultura,” a theater festival that will offer 40 productions in commemoration of the “historical memory and collective independence of Colombia.”
As the director of the festival explained, “Colombian theater has been very important collection of fragments, characters and stories in the history of our country.”
In Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, a large parade is slated to impress viewers with more than 900 members of the Armed Forces, National Police and Active Forces of the city.
The parade will pay tribute to Colombia’s heroes, military and police forces, while celebrating the city of Cali, which was an important military outpost during the war of independence that liberated the nations in the south.
Medellin’s mayor has also invited tourist and locals to participate in the Independence Day celebrations. In the city’s Comuna 13, locals will host a block party with music, food, and lots of national spirit. The party will start at 5AM and will not end until the following day.
A military parade will fill the streets of the San Javier neighborhood, and begins at 2:30PM near the San Javier library.