HomeHELP! TicketsThe Bands 2010For The Kids Art Camping/ Hotels Getting HereAlbum 2009Album 2008Album 2007History Cyanobacteria Hospitalito Atitlan Festival StoreRadio AtitlanAccounts and Details

 

Mambo Balam

Brian Howe

Method to the Madnez

dancer

MAF

SotzilWelcome to the Festival Atitlán site! Our festival has become one of the most interesting musical events in Guatemala. For 2010 we have another great lineup, including popular bands in many genres as well as dance, theatre, circus arts, graphic arts, and lots of stuff for the kids to do. The 13th of March, 2010, from 11 AM until 12 PM, we will be celebrating the ninth Lake Atitlan Internacional Music and Art Festival in Santiago Atitlan. There has been a lot of interest by performers, and we have recieved more than 40 offers from acts who would like to be part of the festival, and choosing the groups is always difficult, but we have finally decided on which bands will be chosen as the lineup for 2010. Most of the bands have been chosen, and you can see the current list on The Bands page. There are still a couple of bands who haven't given their final OK.....You can see the story and hear some great recordings of the bands that played last year (great festival!)on the Album 2009 page.

danceratitlandancer

The Festival Atitlan 2009 Dance Troupes

This year 2 very different dance troupes performed at the Festival (Grupo Sotzil from Solola, and La Cambalacha, from San Marcos La Laguna), as well as a spectacularly dressed group of impromptu dancers who showed up in the middle of the music.

We got so much good audio material recorded directly from the soundboards that I decided to do a Radio program... It will be on the air locally on Lake Atitlan and also right here online on Radio Atitlan In 2009 there were a lot of folks taking pictures, videos, and sound bites. On our site we are using photos from Tim Silven, marked with ¥, Surunda Velasquez, marked with §, Violeta Luz Foregger, marked with £, Carolyn Aigner, marked with Œ, and Manuel Chavajay, marked with €. THANKS!

This year 100% of the proceeds of the Festival Atitlan will serve to support a local educational project about the cyanobacteria that is menacing Lake Atitlan. It includes an eco comic for illiterate adults, comic books for the kids, educational material for the schools, and local radio and television programming in Tzutujil, Caqchiquel, and spanish that teaches regular people what they can personally do to stop the problem. You can see more information on the Cyanobacteria page

The proceeds for past festivals have gone to help the construction of the Hospitalito Atitlan in Santiago, as well as other projects. In 2009 we managed to donate Q16,000 directly, the Hospitalito raffle yielded another Q5000, and there were some other donations as well. You can see details of the 2009 money trip on the Accounts page as soon as I finish it. You can see more about the Hospitalito story on the Hospitalito Atitlan page.

The 2009 Festival was almost too much work for Lani and I, who end up doing 90% of the organizing... we have already decided that the only way for us to continue putting on the Festival is to get a group of people together who are willing to take an active part in organizing and carrying out the many details that it takes to put on an event of this kind..(If you want to help, WE NEED YOU, see the Help! page). So , step up and be counted if you want to see a Festival Atitlan 2010.

 

 

Crater at Festival Atitlan 2009

 

 

Do you wanna help for the 2010 Festival??!!!

HELP ORGANIZE, Play with the kids, recycling, the small stage, the art gallery, backstage, security. Or , if you prefer, donate something to help pay for the sound system for 2010

Theres lots to do if we are going to have a festival next year! We need your help in many phases of next years festival. Help make next years celebration the best ever.

HELP!!!

 

info@festivalatitlan.com

Charango Berrinches Latin Ska Band  £Putting on a Festival like this one is like building a small city for a day. You need to have everything arranged so that 1000 people have what they need and their basic necesities are well taken care of. Our thanks to all the outhouse movers, garbage cleaners, and invisible folk who make sure of this. In 2009 things went pretty smoothly, with only a couple of security problems (we caught a thief), and the tecnical side went very well thanks to Lenin Fernandez and crew.

cayuco

Fill in the information below to get on our mailing list

Name
Email:
Message:

 

There are a lot of pictures from the 2009 festival in the 2009 Album . If you are confused about exactly where the festival took place, check the Getting here page. Check Festival 2008 for information about last years event. Since we have been doing this for awhile, there is history. You can also get information on what happened in 2009 for the kids on the Kids page, the Art section, and how the Camping went.

The Spirit of the Festival is alive and well in Santiago!

dove

Special:

We still have some t-shirts and posters from this and past festivals. Check it out:

Festival Store

tiedyed