The organizing committee of the Caribbean Festival announced that the event has been postponed for 2021. In its place, a special edition will be held online July 3-9, featuring highlights of the previous 39 editions.

This year’s virtual festival coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Casa del Caribe –the cultural institution in eastern Santiago de Cuba that organizes the annual Caribbean Festival—also known as Fire festival. The Casa del Caribe was inaugurated on June 22nd, 1980.

Cuban intellectual Orlando Vergés Martínez, president of the festival’s organizing committee, said the event emphasizes the Caribbean influence on Cuban culture and way of life, particularly in Santiago de Cuba.

Vergés Martínez, the director of Casa del Caribe, stressed that once the epidemiological situation allows for it, a big celebration will take place to mark the 40th anniversary of the cultural institution. Commemorative actions include a documentary film on the work of Casa del Caribe over the past 40 years and its contribution to Cuban and Caribbean culture, and special issues of the magazine Del Caribe, the flagship publication of the cultural institution.

The organizing committee also announced that the 2021 festival will be dedicated to EGREM’s Estudios Siboney on its 40th anniversary and Belize will be the guest country of honor.