The story
Colombian Folk Festival in Ibague
Festival Folclorico Colombiano is Ibague's June celebration of Andean folk music and dance, founded in 1959 as a deliberate act of social pacification during Colombia's bipartisan political violence. Its Reinado Nacional del Folclor pageant, added in 1997, judges contestants on demonstrated knowledge of Colombian folklore rather than appearance alone, and the festival was declared national cultural heritage in 2006.
Festival Folclorico Colombiano was organized for the first time in 1959 by authorities in Tolima, a department that had been badly scarred by Colombia's bipartisan political violence known as La Violencia, as a deliberate attempt to use folk music and dance as a tool of social pacification rather than simply as entertainment.