Friday, October 31, 2008

All saint´s day choir Concert

All Saints Day is a national holiday in Chile and, as in many other Latin American countries. despite the official dia de los difuntos is the next day 2th, it is also The Day of the Dead. Although less exuberant and macabre than in Mexico, celebrations take place widely in Chile too. People honour their forbears on this day; making offerings to their ancestor's souls at masses and gravesides, holding vigils at gravesides or building shrines to deceased loved ones. Events are usually unstructured and may take place anywhere from a private household to a public square or a cemetery. One of these are choirs singing at churches. The Sagrados Corazones church is perhaps one of the oldest churches with the best acoustic for organ and choir music in Valpo. So this free concert by the Advenir Choir with the U. de Chile orchestra is one that nobody should miss November 1th at 18 hr. Iglesia Sagrados Corazones, Independencia 2086.

Celtic & Rapanui Halloween at Quilpué

Over 20 years ago the halloween festivities with parties and festivals were practically unknown in Chile. Now, these parties are everywhere in the major cities and are getting more popular every year. So a twist to these are found in Quilpué with a celtic festival cellebrating Samhaim, the original celtic seasonal festival and the polinesian rapanui fiesta.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Dreaming about bagpiping

In the last few weeks we have received news about bagpipe bands visiting Valparaiso. First, a month ago it was the aborted visit by the Banda de gaitas Ciudad de Oviedo (Asturias) and the Bagad de Lann Bihoué (Bretagne) is coming next week. We would like to support such efforts but too often we get news about these visits with little time to be able to help much really. Anyway, we are dreaming again about a future gathering within our Festival FIMIV with several foreign pipebands plus the few locals from Valparaiso (Remembranzas de Galicia y la Colectividad Asturiana de Valparaiso ), Santiago (Lar Gallego, Centro asturiano & Andes Highlanders pipeband), Antofagasta (Eagle high school), Temuco (Derradeiros), and Punta Arenas (Centro Español) in a sort of national gathering at our town.

Bagad de Lann Bihoué: French piping in Valpo

Bagad de Lann Bihoué is the french navy bagpipe band from Lann Bihoué that will be visiting Valparaiso and their Municipal theater next November 4th, 20 hr.
Bagad de Lann Bihoué es la banda de gaitas de la marina francesa que nos visitará tocando sus 28 gaitas, bombardas y percusiones el dia 4 de Noviembre en el Teatro municipal de Valparaíso a las 20 hrs. Un septeto tocará cerca de las 14 hrs. en la plazuela Anibal Pinto y en el Duoc de Viña en la tarde.

Rojo caliente: hot jazzy bluegrass

Rojo caliente is a local tribute band focused on bluegrass, hot jazz, swing with some celtic traits is coming out from its cocoon at their birthplace to show off their hot music for free at the bar Irlandés, Blanco 1279, this coming Sunday November 2th at 22 hrs.
Rojo caliente es una nueva banda tributo hot del bluegrass, hot jazz, y swing con algunos rasgos célticos que estará mostrando su música hot gratis en el bar El Irlandés, Blanco 1279, este domingo 2 a las 22 hrs.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Feria juvenil de las culturas

Since 2005 around this time of the year we have an international young cultural gathering called Feria juvenil de las culturas... so this time we will have the IV Feria next saturday 18 from 11 am to 6:30 pm with over 21 different foreign communities participating with music, dancing, traditional food tasting and sharing their culture at plaza cívica facing the intendencia building off Bellavista. Source: Injuv.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Columbus day at estadio Español

On every October 12th or the closer weekend there is a great fiesta at the Estadio Español at Recreo where all the different colectividades (historical regions) from Spain show their folk traditions such as dance, music and foods.
Asturians and galicians were the noisier bunch who contributed with their lively bagpipe music and dancing. Of course, there are several flamenco dancing groups who represented the andalusian traditions too, but the already mentioned astur-galician bunch represented by Remembranzas de Galicia and the banda de gaitas y bailes asturianos were the ones who got the most kudos from the public.
photo credits: Gianela Machuca