Cubulco Festival 2025!!

Cubulco Festival 2025!!

The small town of Cubulco in Guatamala has an annual festival held each year in late July. Francine discovered this on the day before the penultimate day of the festival whilst on our way to Semuc Champey. Many towns have festivals. But this one features an aerial dance that we really wanted to see and so we made a rather long detour and we were very glad we did!

After two long days of driving through narrow mountain roads we arrived in Cubulco wondering where on earth we would park in the packed town. We pulled into a builder’s yard to consult the map, and whilst doing so, were approached by Sergio, the yard’s owner’s brother, and he invited us to overnight in the yard. Result!

Over the next two days we immersed ourselves in the markets, parades, music and the arial dance performed in the main square in front of the town’s church. The “Palo Volador” (or “Flying Pole”) starts with two performers in monkey costume ascending the 30m pole (a tree which has been carefully selected, stripped, cut and planted in the main square in the preceding days). They are followed up to the top by two other dancers, who put one leg through a harness (that’s the extent of the health and safety here!) and both kick away from the pole simultaneously in opposite directions. The rope with the harness gradually unwinds and they “fly” back down to earth, where they are welcomed by other dancers. When trying to research the meaning of each part of this Mayan ceremony (which is only performed in a couple of other small Guatemalan towns – and not at the same time of year), Mr Google was rather confused, but it does seem to relate to a fertility/rain ritual with the dancers falling like rain from the heavens. Throughout the spectacle marimba music was played (the marimba is like a large xylophone), which also sounded like the gentle sound of rain. Meanwhile, at random intervals, loud homemade “bombas” or fireworks were lit around the square, no doubt to remind us of the chaos and unpredictability of life on earth. We feel very lucky to have been able to witness this festival, it being in a very remote town. There were very few ‘gringo’ tourists – was saw five.

And here is a video which brings it all to life…