Colombia’s World Heritage Carnival

If you’ve already experienced Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Carnival in Trinidad or the Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro, then your next music, dance and food-and-drink filled blowout should be the annual pre-Lent carnival in Barranquilla. Let Colombian Journeys show you the way . . .

Declared by the UNESCO as a World Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2003, Carnival Barranquilla features more than 140 folk groups, singers and artists over a four-day celebration that includes street parties, parades, music and dance groups, costume parties and contests.

The four-day carnival kicks off with the Battle of the Flowers Parade — the parade route awash in more than 1.5 million magnolias and carnations — and ends with the symbolic “death” of Joselito Carnaval, a fictional character that represents the joy of carnival.

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