Festival Internacional Cervantino

We are the largest cultural festival in Latin America and this year we celebrate our 50th edition, making it more exciting than ever.

With more than 2,500 artists from 33 countries, we scheduled 159 performing arts events and 90 activities in visual arts, film, literature, and artists' market. All in all, we have an overflowing non-stop cultural agenda for 19 days... wow! The public lives an intense and vibrant experience with multiple options of great quality for every taste. Our venue has no comparison: Guanajuato is one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site with its proud mining past. Strollers walk between alleys to go from one stage to another, some forums are closed like the Teatro Juarez, and others are open like the Esplanade of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas. In addition, in keeping with the tradition we emerged, we promote artistic activities on street stages held in public squares. As an initiative of the federal government, bringing together different levels of government, public and private institutions, we focus on designing diverse and affordable programming, with 50% of the offerings being free of charge. Although there are shows for specific audiences, such as children's events or master classes focused on music students, to mention two examples, most of our content aims at the general public, which means everybody can enjoy it. Come and join us! We are a family festival open to all audiences.

A crucial part of us is the Social FIC (FIC Social), the initiative that brings together different programs such as Beyond Guanajuato (Más allá de Guanajuato), which transports the festival to various parts of the country by screening several shows. For eight years Ruelas Project (Proyecto Ruelas) has worked with vulnerable communities in Guanajuato to rebuild the social fabric through theater. In addition, the presence of artists from the Cervantino Festival in other cities of the country is possible thanks to the efforts of The Cervantino Tour (Circuito Cervantino), another of the festival’s initiatives whose mission is to extend the festival throughout the length and breadth of the country.

There is no need to arrive in Guanajuato with a long list of chosen activities, but with a tremendous willingness to be surprised by the city, its venues, the artists, and the friendly local people. If this is your first Cervantino experience, just let yourself go. You will find something in the program that will take your soul away, and if you are a steady audience, do not miss anything in the State Auditorium (Auditorio del Estado), especially Dimitris. La Fura will blow your mind, public squares will be exceptionally active, a surprise will come from Lila Downs, and Los Pastitos will bring the most raucous program.

We are waiting for you at our home, Guanajuato, with all the excitement of the festival’s anniversary, and in our online home, on the website, we will broadcast plenty of shows. You can check the complete program here and see what each activity is like. We guide you to the ticket purchase, provide you with the agenda and the hand programs of some of the shows. If you are one of those who want to carry the festival in your pocket, we recommend you download the App Cervantina to make your experience even more enjoyable.
We celebrate the first half-century of bringing together the best of the performing arts to Guanajuato.

Goal:
Our goal is to leave no one behind. We work to bring different audiences closer to artistic expressions, which will help to build a fuller society based on plurality and empathy. Building space of cultural dissemination, seeking the distribution of cultural wealth while encouraging national creation by opening the Cervantino stages to Mexican artists. Encouraging new audiences through diverse programming with different interests and showing art does matter matters a lot.