Buenos Aires Tango Festival & World Cup

Every August it’s time to put on a sultry face and slide into a tight embrace on the dance floor at the Buenos Aires’ Tango Festival.

At this yearly tango festival, tango aficionados and international visitors enjoy live tango orchestras, dance shows and competitions, tango-related films, art exhibitions and of course milongas (dance parties), celebrating Argentina’s most famous dance.

The free two week event is hailed as the world’s largest tango-related festival with 2,000 performers and nearly half a million visitors. This larger event is preceded by the citywide Buenos Aires Tango Championship, held every May — this year from the 9th to the 20th.

Julio Balmaceda & Corina de la Rosa dancing tango — courtesy of Festivales de Buenos Aires

Bailongo in Buenos Aires

Although today considered one of the country’s most sophisticated cultural exports, tango was born at the end of the 19th century in the working class portside neighborhood of La Boca. An immigrant community of mostly struggling, single European men meant there was a dearth of women at the time.

Men danced with each other to practice for the day they might have the chance to seduce one of the few single ‘ladies of the night’ available. Because of tango’s early association with crime, the outlaw language of lunfardo and poverty, upper crust Argentines originally turned up their noses at the dance.

Once the sounds and moves of tango exploded in Europe in the early 20^th century, wealthy and middle class Argentines co-opted the once underground sound and began composing more purified tangos, bringing the sexy dance into their ballrooms.

Since the 1990’s tango has experienced a new renaissance in Buenos Aires and worldwide. UNESCO included tango on their Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2009.

Throughout the festival there is a variety of open milongas allowing the public to dance to the live sounds of traditional tango orchestras, tangotronica DJ’s and tango-inspired fusión groups .

Among the living tango greats who have hit the stage here are Saúl Cosentino with his avant-garde tango tunes akin to Piazolla; Bandoneon virtuoso, Julio Pane; and composer and the former bandoneonist for Alfredo Gobbi, Alberto Garralda. Other performances include an homage to Grammy winner, Leopoldo Federico, who performed at last year’s Tango Festival and then died at 87 a few months later, and a retrospective of Russian tango of the ’20s and ’30s performed by the Belamor Kanal Quartet. Bringing more modern tango sounds are acts such as Cumbre de Contrabajista (Summit of Stand-up Bassists) and French composer, guitarist and singer, Brian Chambouleyron (on a double bill with the aforementioned Alberto Garralda).

For those who dream to dance tango like they own the floor, the festival hosts dance classes and talks with local dancefloor legends such as Milena Plebs, Sebastián Arce, María Nieves, Julio Balmaceda y Corina de la Rosa, Fernando Galera, Vilma Vega and 82-year-old Juan Carlos Copes.

World Tango Competition

The festival culminates in the Tango World Cup in which the world’s best tangueros compete on stage for prestige and cash prizes in the Salon Tango and Stage Tango Competitions at Luna Park.

All the activities and shows at the Tango Festival are free. Tickets for Tango World Cup are first come, first serve, and will be given out at the Casa de Cultura, Av. de Mayo 575. There is a two ticket limit per person. The 2018 date to pick up tickets has not yet been announced.

For all other limited seating events, tickets are given out beginning two hours before the show.

To see a day-by-day breakdown of the Tango Festival events and the World Championship Dance competition see the Buenos Aires Culture Department’s official webpage linked below.

Tango BA 2018: Citywide championship competition

May 9-20

Buenos Aires Tango Festival & World Cup 2018

August 9-22,
Buenos Aires Culture Department Festival Page
• Tel: . 0-800-333-7848 (Mon-Fri 10a.m.-8p.m)

→ Check out other tango tours and activities to learn the dance or check out the city’s milongas with a local.

→ Book safe airport transfer and reserve your accommodation online to save money — you get the 21% VAT tax back when you book online with a credit card.

→ See our suggestions, ‘What to Pack for Argentina.‘

Tango Festival Venues

Downtown

•Luna Park
Av. Corrientes y Bouchard
• Tel: 5279-5279
• Bus: 4, 6, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28, 33, 45, 50, 54, 56, 61, 62, 74, 91, 93, 99, 105
• Subway: Línea B, L.N. Alem stop

•Teatro Colón
Cerrito 628

Bus: 5,9,10,17,24,26,45,59,67,70,75,99,100,106,132,146
Subte: Line D: Tribunales stop; Line B: Carlos Pellegrini stop; Line C: Diagonal Norte stop

•Teatro Astral
Av Corrientes 1639

Bus:5,6,7,23,24,26,37,50,60,102,115,124,146,150,180
Subte: Line D, Callao; Line B Uruguay stop or 9 de Julio; Line C Diagonal Norte

La Boca

• Usina del Arte
Av. Don Pedro de Mendoza 501 (corner of A. Caffarena)
Bus: 4, 8, 20, 25, 29, 33, 53, 64, 86, 129, 130, 152, 159, 168, 195

•Museo del Cine
Agustín Caffarena 51
Bus:4, 8, 20, 25, 29, 33, 46, 53, 64, 86, 129, 130, 152, 159, 168, 195

•Teatro de La Ribera/La Milonga del Dique
Av. Don Pedro de Mendoza 1821
Bus:8, 20, 25, 29, 33, 46, 53, 64, 86, 129, 152, 159

Caballito

•Espacio Cultural Adán Buenosayres
Av. Asamblea 1200

Almagro

La Catedral
Sarmiento 4006

•Espacio Cultural Julián Centeya
Ave. San Juan 3255

Villa Urquiza

•Teatro 25 de Mayo
Av Triunvirato 4444
Bus: 71, 112, 114, 127, 133, 176
Subte: Line B, Echeverría Stop

2018 Buenos Aires Carnival Information

Carnival in Buenos Aires is a grand fiesta that takes place every year throughout the month of February.

See this neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to find out where you can catch your colorful local murga take to the streets.

View Cortes Carnaval in a larger map

Times: — Every weekend of February, plus the carnival holidays of February 12 & 13th, 2018

Saturdays from 7:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m.; Sundays from 7:00 p.m. until 12:00 a.m.

Carnival Holidays: Monday, February 12 from 7 p.m until 2 a.m. & Tuesday, February 13 from 7 p.m. until 12 a.m.

Neighborhood Carnival Information 2018

Abasto   AV. CORDOBA between SANCHEZ DE BUSTAMANTE Y AGÜERO
Almagro I   AV. CORRIENTES between MEDRANO & GASCON
Almagro II   LAMBARE between SARMIENTO & PERON
Balvanera   AV. JUJUY between BELGRANO & MEXICO
Barracas   HERRERA between BENITO QUINQUELA MARTIN & CALIFORNIA
Boedo I   AV. BOEDO between INDEPENDENCIA & SAN JUAN
Boedo II   AV. BELGRANO between MAZA & COLOMBRES
Coghlan   AV. CONGRESO between DONADO & LUGONES
Palermo I   DARWIN between CABRERA & NICETO VEGA
Paternal I   AV. NAZCA between BELAUSTEGUI & M.CERVANTES
San Telmo   Av. INDEPENDENCIA between PERU & PIEDRAS
Villa Crespo   AV. SCALABRINI ORTIZ between CORRIENTES & PADILLA
Villa Pueyrredon   AV. MOSCONI between BOLIVIA & ZAMUDIO
Villa Urquiza   AV TRIUNVIRATO between MONROE & AV. OLAZABAL

Plazas

Club Floreal	ELCANO E/ GARMENDIA & AVALOS
Plaza Colegiales	MATIENZO E/ CONESA & FREIRE
Plaza Unidad Latinoamericana	ACUÑA DE FIGUEROA & COSTA RICA
Plaza Ricchieri	AV. BEIRÓ & QUEVEDO
Parque Avellaneda	AV. OLIVERA E/ DIRECTORIO & J. RODO
Parque Saavedra	AV. BALBIN E/ MANZANARES & CRISOLOGO LARRALDE
Plaza Irlanda	SEGUI E/ GAONA & NEUQUEN

Buenos Aires Carnival Tips:

• Wearing easily stained garments such as silk to carnival is NOT recommended, but don’t worry about street clothes as the ‘carnival snow’ generally dissolves quickly.

• Be careful with expensive cameras as carnival visitors are inevitably ‘foamed’ by mischievous youth.

For additional Carnival information call: 4342-8199

Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival

The Buenos Aires jazz scene often gets overshadowed by the sounds of tango and rock ‘n’ roll, but for five days in spring jazz music fills the city during the annual International Buenos Aires Jazz Festival.

With sounds ranging from classic bebob, to gypsy jazz, klezmer, to swing and nuevo tango, the festival features concerts from Argentina’s top names in jazz as well as renowned international artists.

Taking place in November, the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival grows larger every year and now welcomes nearly 300 professional and up-and-coming musicians.

The event is a rare chance for Argentine jazz musicians who live and work overseas to return home for some gigs and gives international musicians, who don’t usually have Buenos Aires on their tour roster, an opportunity to perform here.

The city-sponsored festival has featured international artists such as Americans; Peter Washington performing on double bass; drummer Billy Drummond; guitarist Wayne Krantz; and singer Michelle Weir; and the Israeli duo of cellist and singer Maya Belsitzman and percussionist, Matan Ephrat.

Argentine musicians participating include fret-less bass player, Alfredo Remus; pianist and singer Ángel Sucheras playing New Orleans style jazz; double bassist Arturo Puertas ; a trio made up of members of the swing orchestra, Brazofuerte, drummer Hernán Avella, pianist Manuel Fraga and saxophonist and clarinetist Juan Klappenbachand; and a group billed as Afro-jazz, Ayelen Zuker & Timeless Soul Band.

Concerts & Special Events

Other event locations are; the Parque Centenario Amphitheater, where nightly jam sessions will take place; Almagro’s Café Vinilo and one of Buenos Aires’ best known jazz clubs, Thelonious, in Palermo.

Buenos Aires’ historic immigrant neighborhood, La Boca is also jumping on the jazz bandwagon again this year and will host headliners, including the festival’s opening show, the Peter Bernstein Quintet, at its newest auditorium, Usina del Arte.

Special free events will take place at the Colón Theater’s beautiful Salon Dorado.

Lauded every year are the end of concert jam sessions at Parque Centenario amphitheater, where musicians from different continents and sub-genres improvise together, bringing the crowd to their feet as they communicate only through music. This year they will be hosted once again by popular host and trumpet player, Gillespi every night at 10 pm.

For the fourth time this year, the AMIA Jewish Community Center will also host two nights of concerts in their concert hall during the festival. Due to security concerns at this venue, audience members must bring I.D. and are asked to arrive one hour before the performance.

Closing out the festival this year is a very special concert with Brandford Marsalis and his quartet, with drummer Justin Faulkner, pianist Samora Pinderhugues and double bass player Russell Hall at the Colón Theater. Tickets for that show are already sold out.

In an effort to foster the Buenos Aires jazz scene, the festival includes master classes, music clinics and workshops in singing, drums, stand-up bass, guitar and piano for aspiring musicians. Click the link below to see a day-by-day event calendar (when it’s published).

Buenos Aires Jazz Festival 2017 (day-by-day events)

November 15-20
Tel: 0-800-333-7848

Buenos Aires Jazz Festival Tickets:

Tickets for paid events can be purchased online via the website Tu Entrada or at their office.

Tu Entrada
Av. Corrientes 728
Mon-Sat 12 p.m.-8 p.m.
Sat: 12 p.m.-6 p.m.

—Free events, including the free concerts everyday of the festival, are first-come, first-serve.

Buenos Aires Jazz Festival Event Locations:

Teatro Colón
Libertad 611

Usina del Arte
Av. Pedro de Mendoza & Caffarena

Anfiteatro del Parque Centenario
Av. Ángel Gallardo & Leopoldo Marechal

AMIA
Pasteur 633

Café Vinilo
Gorriti 3780

Thelonious Club
Jerónimo Salguero 1884

Margen del Mundo
Concepción Arenal 4865

ArteBA: Buenos Aires’ Annual Contemporary Art Fair

ArteBa is one of Latin America’s largest contemporary art fairs. Taking place over the course of three days, the annual Buenos Aires’ event attracts over 120,000 art junkies from across the planet and provides visitors the chance to hobnob with the Argentine elite, artists and celebrities.

Sponsored by The ArteBA Foundation and brought together with the help of a multitude of corporate sponsors and the Buenos Aires Culture Department, ArteBA provides visibility for established local artists and a platform for emerging artist to get their work noticed on the international level. The fair also aids in the acquisition of new works for some of Argentina’s top museums including MALBA.

The art fair takes place at the Palermo exhibition center, La Rural.

An artwork by Pablo Zel as seen at ArteBA 2012 — A piece by Pablo Zel in ArteBA 2012

Highlights for visitors include the ‘Barrio Joven’ section, designed to foster new talent in the Latin American art world and the U-TURN Project Rooms, a special exhibition area that brings together a variety of international galleries in an effort to put world class international art before the Latin American public.

Entrance to the art fair, can be purchased online or at the ticket window at La Rural.

Before making an important art purchase, visitors may want to read up on the legal steps necessary to export art from Argentina.

ArteBA 2018
May 24-27
La Rural
Avenida Sarmiento 2704
-Blue and green pavilions
Palermo
Tel: 4816-8704

• Hours: 2:00 p.m.—9:00 p.m.
• General Admission: $160
-2 day access: $250, 3 day access: $320
• Seniors and Students: $80
• Kids under 12 free

Transportation

Bus
Lines by Santa Fe Avenue: 12 – 15 – 21 – 29 – 36 – 39 – 41 – 55 – 57 – 59 – 60 – 64 – 67 – 68 – 93 – 95 – 111 – 118 – 160 – 161 – 188 – 194
Lines by Sarmiento Avenue: 37 – 67
Lines by Oro Street: 34 – 160
Subway
Palermo Station
Plaza Italia Station
Train
San Martín Line: Palermo Station
Mitre Line: Minister Carranza Station, 3 de Febrero Station

Don’t forget to book your hotel in Palermo in advance for ArteBA

Feria del Libro: Buenos Aires International Book Fair

The words ‘Book Fair’ have the potential to conjure up images of elementary schoolyards with tables of used paperbacks underneath kitschy tents.

Whatever mental representation arises, it is completely deceptive when it comes to Buenos Aires ‘Feria International del Libro.’

This annual celebration of the literary universe and its purveyors is the Spanish-speaking world’s largest book fair.

Inside the 45,000 square meters of Palermo’s Argentine Rural Society unfolds a city of books with author signings, conferences, discussions and lectures.

The book fair has flourished since its founding in 1975 – today it hosts over 1.2 million visitors and 1,500 expositors from 50 countries. Book readings and special presentations take place in La Rural’s ten different auditoriums.

Spanning three weeks every autumn, the event is sponsored by La Fundación el Libro (The Book Foundation), a non-profit founded by the Argentine Society of Writers.

Cultural Events and Controversial Writers

Cultural events include a poetry festival, a storytelling marathon, an interactive area for youth, and a party with games and live shows.

Previous additions have hosted writers such as Paul Auster, Ray Bradbury, Tom Wolfe, Susan Sontag, and Muhammad Yunus.

Jorge Luis Borges at the Buenos Aires Feria de Libros in the 1970s — Jorge Luis Borges surrounded by Fernando Duelo Cavero, María Esther de Miguel, Eduardo Gudiño Kieffer, María Esther Vázquez, and Roberto Castiglioni at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair in the 1970s. Courtesy, Fundación de Libro.

Argentina’s most renowned contemporary authors also attend. Before their deaths, participants included Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Sabato, Silvina Bullrich and Tomás Eloy Martínez.

In recent years, Buenos Aires’ largest cultural event has also inadvertently been the center of some newsworthy incidents.

In 2010 Cuban dissident, Hilda Molina was interrupted by pro-Castro activists chanting, “Cuba yes! Yankees no!” before she was able to make a presentation of her autobiography, Mi Verdad (My Truth). The police intervened and Molina quickly exited. A shouting match ensued and a member of the public took the microphone and told the protestors to “go to Cuba if they loved Castro so much.”

In 2011 a public outcry emerged when the anti-Kirchner Nobel prize winner, Mario Vargas Llosa was invited to inaugurate the fair. The controversy played out in the daily newspapers until President Fernández de Kirchner stepped in herself to ask her supporters to withdrawal their protests. Llosa returned in 2016.

Yearly Themes: Future Zone

Each year the Feria del Libro has a unique theme. The 2012 theme, ‘The Future of Books’ featured a popular digital space where visitors were able to sample e-readers and purchase electronic books – a practice that is still warming to most Argentines.

2013’s theme was ‘Libros como Puentes’ or ‘Books as Bridges’. If the theme is a bit recondite, it shed light on a new development at the Feria del Libro: a city as an honored invitee.

In 2016 book fair continued with the development of literature and technology with the ‘Future Zone’ a space to discover the new esthetics, tendencies and technology in literature with nearly 300 writers, film makers, visual artists, musicians and journalists participating.

The Feria del Libro’s first invited city was Amsterdam and although a principal section of the book fair was dubbed ‘Cafe Amsterdam’ — it did not resemble the aromatic cafes of the famous liberal city. Instead, activities are sponsored by the guest city. The Feria’s 42nd edition featured Santiago de Compestela as the invited city, with 25 guest writers such as Manuel Rivas, Domingo Villar, Xavier Queipo, and María Solar. This year’s guest city is Montevideo, right next door in neighboring Uruguay.

Among the authors attending this year are Yasmina Reza, Paul Auster, Mario Vargas Llosa, John M. Coetzee, Juan Villoro, Dan Wells, María Dueñas, Elvira Sastre and Richard Ford.

When To Go

The best time to visit the Feria del Libro in order to avoid the crowds and comfortable browse is during the week. Toward the end of the festival visitors can get great deals on books from vendors who want to unload their stock before going back home.

—Alana Fichman

Feria International del Libro de Buenos Aires
April 26 — May 14 2018
Argentine Rural Society
Santa Fe 4201
or Sarmiento 2704 (parking)

Palermo

Hours:

◦ The 2018 Feria del Libro takes place from April 26 until May 14:

◦ Mondays through Fridays 2 p.m. until 10 p.m.

◦ Saturdays & Sundays 1 p.m until 10 p.m.

Tickets:

• Can be purchased at the venue

Mon-Thur – AR$

Fri, Sat, Sun & Holidays –AR$$

Children under 12 free

Getting there:

Subway: Plaza Italia stop, line ‘D’

Buses: 10, 12, 15, 21, 29, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 55, 57, 59, 60, 67, 68, 93, 95, 111, 118, 160, 161, 188, 197

Take a Tango Tour