Havana, August 16 (RHC) – Fans of ‘rumba’, the contagious Cuban rhythm, are delighted as the 11th International Timbalaye Festival will kick off in the Cuban capital next Friday. Scheduled to run until August 31st, the festival celebrates ‘rumba’, declared an Intangible World Heritage Asset.  The cultural gathering is dedicated to the festival’s 20th anniversary, to Havana’s 500th birthday, to Mexico and to Benny Moré, the so called ‘Wildman of Rhythm’.  

At a news conference, attended by Cuban National Heritage Council President, Gladys Collazo, cultural promoter Commander Víctor Dreke and Timbalaye’s President, Ulises Mora, the Vice President of the ‘Viviendo en los barrios’ cultural Project, Irma Castillo, revealed the gathering’s program. The festival’s opening is scheduled to be held at La Corea community in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón with the first drum and rumba sessions performed by the groups Echu Alabboni, Afro Caribe and Los Chinitos.

Timbalaye’s nine-day program includes colloquiums, concerts, open-air performances and the participant’s visit to the Slave Route Museum in the western city of Matanzas. The closing is set for the Lyceum of Regla in the Cuban capital at 6 p.m. on August 31, with the performance of Cuban rumba players and dancers, the Tuxpan municipal folk company from Veracruz, Mexican harpist Delfino Guerrero and singer Fabiola Jaramillo. Prior to the event, this weekend Timbalaye will also provide a special space for the music genre and dance in Sagua La Grande, a town of ‘rumberos’ and of the Cabildo Kunalumbo, a National Living Memory 2018 Award winner.