Fiestas Civicas Liberia

Rooted in Guanacaste's nineteenth-century cattle-ranching hacienda economy and documented through Tope de Toros records dating to at least 1877, Liberia's civic festivals run from late February into early March as Guanacaste's provincial capital's clearest expression of regional ranching heritage. The Tope de Toros parade, alongside related traditions called the Diana, the Montaderas, the Burra, the Retretas and the Parranda, has grown into an internationally recognised cultural highlight over 150 years.

Liberia's civic festivals trace their roots to the early nineteenth century, when the canton's historical, social and economic life was built almost entirely around Guanacaste's cattle-ranching haciendas, an economic foundation that has shaped the festival's character for more than 150 years through its close association with the Tope de Toros, a bull-and-rider procession documented in local records from at least 1877 onward.