Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

The inclusive theatre company Ritmos de Libertad, run by the social and cultural organisation Ruleli, based in the Olaya neighbourhood, opens the 2026 Hay Festival Comunitario with a show that includes dance, music and theatre, and which involves children, teenagers, young adults and disabled people, celebrating the group’s diversity. Inspired by Caribbean musical rhythms, they emphasise their African heritage through some vibrant routines. This special opening event will also feature the La Pambelé, which will give a special musical performance.

Noche de salsa brava con La Pambelé. La de la salsa más callejera, la reivindicativa, esa que bebe de Willie Colón y Héctor Lavoe, del Rubén Blades que grababa con Colón. Deudora del sonido que puso a bailar en las calles de Nueva York y los barrios del Caribe en los años setenta, esta orquesta originaria de Bogotá promete hacer lo propio con los asistentes al concierto inaugural del Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2026. Presentan Nací mestizo, álbum publicado a finales de 2024.

PULEP Code: MET232

Various members of the La Pambelé band will take part in this musical event, to talk about music and activism. This ensemble is heir to the salsa brava of Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe, the salsa of the street, a protest salsa, that, instead of singing about love became about the life of the neighbourhood, with all its uprootedness, pride, pain and resistance. La Pambelé mingle conversations about their music and influences with performance, for the listening pleasure of those attending. The conversation will be moderated by Gustavo Bossa.

A workshop for singing songs, in order to listen to them. A workshop for “catching butterflies” in a playful and poetic sense, using the emotions. Participants will create their own songs together with the coordinator Jairo Ojeda, using the literary strategy of it looks to me. The workshop will include a conversation about the interaction between listening to and singing songs.

The Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias will be the setting for the global presentation of the book Silvio Rodríguez, diario de un trovador. The texts that the singer-songwriter has written especially for this book include fragments of his private diary, and these are combined with 143 unpublished photos by Daniel Mordzinski. The two authors will talk about the nine years that they have been working together, during which Mordzinski has portrayed, unfiltered and with full creative freedom, the family life of Silvio Rodríguez, his tours in Latin America and Spain, his encounters with other creators and the essential geographies of his life, including his hometown of San Antonio de los Baños. They will be in conversation with Cuban film actor and director Jorge Perugorría.

Silvio Rodríguez will participate virtually

All events on Saturday, January 31st will be free for people with ID from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested —up to capacity— at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your identification on the same day the event is taking place.

Homage to the porro, one of the major musical styles of the Colombian Caribbean. This event will combine a concert and a conversation. We will hear, live, the sincejelana group Acorbanda de Colombia, led by the accordionist and composer Rodrigo Rodríguez; this band is made up of 12 musicians and a guest guitarist. Maestro Rafael Pérez Alviz, a researcher into Caribbean music, and Daniel Samper Pizano will take part in a conversation about the history and cultural wealth of porro.

PULEP Code: AYC168

All events on Sunday, February 1st will be free for people with ID from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested —up to capacity— at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your identification on the same day the event is taking place.