Arequipa Events

Arequipa’s calendar mixes civic celebration, Catholic feast days and Andean agricultural ritual.

Arequipa Day — 15 August

The anniversary of the Spanish founding in 1540, and the focus of a fortnight of celebration that is the city’s biggest occasion by a wide margin. There are parades of schools, institutions and dance troupes through the centre; a large fireworks display; the burning of a castle-shaped firework frame in the main square; competitions of loncco poetry and local dance; and the corrida de toros — which in Arequipa means bull against bull rather than bull against matador, a tradition brought by nineteenth-century miners and enormously popular locally. Restaurants serve full traditional menus, the picanterias are packed, and the whole city turns out. Accommodation is tight for the week.

Virgen de la Candelaria — early February

Observed in the canyon villages with dancing and processions, in a smaller version of the vast Puno festival.

Wititi dancing — through the year, Colca

A courtship dance of the canyon villages in which men wear women’s skirts, UNESCO-listed, performed at village patron saint festivals rather than for visitors.

Pilgrimage to Chapi — 1 May

Tens of thousands walk through the desert overnight to the sanctuary of the Virgen de Chapi, about forty-five kilometres from the city, arriving at dawn. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in southern Peru and entirely a local affair.

Semana Santa — March or April

Processions through the sillar streets, and a Judas effigy burned on Easter Sunday in the neighbourhoods.