Fiesta del Fuego (Carnival)

Date: first week July
Venue: Santiago de Cuba

This festival is celebrated to commemorate 200 years of Haitian Independence and takes place in Santiago on Cuba’s east coast. It is a joint effort by the Cuban Ministry of Culture, the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).

This week long cultural event offers all sorts of entertainment: traditional bands and music, as well as sound systems playing more familiar international dance music; processions of decorated vehicles and curiously-attired dancers; all kinds of foodstuffs being sold from stalls (pork products are particularly popular) and, of course, beer and rum.

Children can take rides in little carts pulled by goats, or in miniature trains. Feisty Caribbean women dance the traditional samba and delight onlookers. The evenings are spent lighting bonfires and dancing.