The Carnaval de Barranquilla is a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity and the second-largest carnival in the world after Rio de Janeiro. Held each February in the four days before Ash Wednesday, it takes over the entire city with parades, cumbia and mapalé dancing, elaborate costumes, and music that runs from midnight to dawn across every neighbourhood. The central parade route is the Via 40, where the main processions pass: the Batalla de Flores on Saturday, the Gran Parada on Sunday, and the Carnaval de la Noche on Monday. The festival closes with the ritual burial of Joselito Carnaval, a symbolic figure whose death marks the return of ordinary life — until next year.
Carnaval de Barranquilla
A story
The carnival's defining moment is the Batalla de Flores — the Battle of Flowers — which opens the four-day festival with a parade of floats covered in tropical blooms. It was created in 1903 by a general who wanted to celebrate the end of the Thousand Days' War with beauty rather than gunfire. The tradition has run almost every year since.