By KYLIE MADRY

After going digital this year, Guanajuato’s International Cervantine Festival (FIC) is navigating the new reality to find opportunities close to home and around the world.

The five-day celebration, arguably the biggest cultural festival in Latin America, reached the mid-way mark Friday, Oct. 16, after opening Wednesday, Oct. 14.

And while almost all of the events, including presentations, interviews, performances and workshops, were transitioned to virtual livestreams, the Cervatine Festival is still leaving some in-person activities for Guanajuato residents to partake in.

Several museums, such as the Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato, the Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato, Museo José y Tomás Chávez Morado and the Museo Hermenegildo Bustos, are opening their doors to allow a limited amount of visitors inside each day.

For those looking to visit Guanajuato in person, there’s no rush – most of the exhibits for the Cervantine Festival will stay open through March 2021, allowing plenty of time to plan a trip.

Online events take viewers around the globe – featuring artists from Argentina to Senegal to China – with just a click.

The lineup for Thursday, Oct. 15, included jam session by local Guanajuato band Son del Montón, just after British a cappella group VOCES8 tuned in from the Live in London festival.

The schedule for Friday, Oct. 15, jumps from France to Cuba and back to Mexico.

Can’t-miss activities include a talk with Claire Gibault, director of the Paris Mozart Orchestra, about the orchestra’s new musical monologue “Beethoven the African” in homage to the Cervantine Festival’s celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 150th birthday; a 14-artist medley of Caribbean music from Cuba and The Guadaloops’ “neomexican” sound blasting from the rooftops of Guanajuato.

The Cervantine Festival ends Sunday, Oct. 18, and can be viewed on the festival’s social media accounts, website or public television Channels 11, 14 and 22.

…Oct. 16, 2020