Bayamo, October 17 (RHC) The Cuban Spirit Festival begins on Friday in Bayamo with a full program of musicians and performers.

Designed to celebrate the roots of the island’s nationality, this cultural event, planned for October 17th through the 20th, is linked to transcendental events in the birth of the nation, including the beginning of the first war of independence against Spanish colonial rule in the 19th century and the fight against slavery.

The Cuban cultural project, Guerrilla de Teatreros, will perform on October 17th with a program that includes music, dance, theater, magic and other art forms in sites where the forefathers of the independence war camped out 146 years ago.

The Idol of Bayamo, an indigenous piece found in 1848, which will be on display in the Bayamo’s Monument City for the first time.

On October 20th, the Day of Cuban Culture, coinciding with the date when Cuba’s National Anthem was sung for the first time in 1868, Bayamo’s Wax Museum will unveil a statue of the late Cuban musician, Juan Formell, who founded and directed Cuba’s most famous band. The band, Los Van Van, will be performing in Bayamo on the night of 20th.

The Cuban Spirit Festival is dedicated to emerging artists and will commemorate the burning of the city before it fell in the hands of the colonial Spanish, one of the most moving events in the history of Cuba. The event also marks the establishment of Cuba’s Constitution of Guáimaro, on this date, 146 years ago.