Every year there is a funded month plus long cavalcade of Cultural events. This amazing Festival is called Otoño Cultural. This year it started 8 November, and runs through 16 December.
Most nights there are any number and variety of events and activities for you to choose from; dance, music, comedy, ...
This link has a good list of the activities should you wish to fill your evenings for the new week or so -
http://www.divertorio.com/entrada/teatro/festival_anual_de_las_artes_otono_cultural_merida_novdic_2012.html
This link is to the SECAY's 'official' site, they are the ones that have made this festival possible, but their site is a bit more difficult to navigate, this link goes straight to tonight's (5 Dec)offerings.
http://www.culturayucatan.com/index.php?option=com_eventlist&view=day&id=20121205
We attended a performance by Los Juglares at the Teatro Peon Contreras last night. Los Juglares is a fantastic Trova group, and we've really loved them since we first saw/heard them our first few months here, back in 2006.
Four months ago we were returning home to Merida from Houston. We were fortunate that we were seated next to a young meridano returning home from a visit to LA. Mitch is studying to be an abogado, a lawyer, He and Tom chatted the entire flight and we've maintained contact - he's visited, we email, we phone, and we facebook. He knows of our affection for los juglares and offered us VIP seating at last nights performance. It just so happens that one of the los juglares (Cesar) is his brother in law. SWEET!
We met Mitch and his girlfriend Bruni in front of the theatre, we were then directed to a side entrance, through backstage where we greeted and chatted with Cesar and some of the stagehands. We then proceeded to our seats, row 2! SUPER SWEET!
It was a fabulous performance, that included an amazing maraca solo by the incredibly dynamic Chucho, a short very entertaining majic, and a special surprise, a song by Gianni Rivera who has an amazing voice. It was a fabulous performance.
In addition to singing and songwriting, these guys are fabulous guitar players.
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| Chucho entertaining the crowd, kissing the ladies, and playing some awesome maracas. |
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| incredible guitar playing. |
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| Gianni Rivera, an amazing crooners voice! |