The first show for the GALA open-air gallery wrapped around the Ajijic was inaugurated Saturday, February 6.

Violinist Benjamin Bowman and cellist Joel Noyes, among the most distinguished of the 27 musicians in this year’s Northern Lights Festival de Febrero, are set to arrive from New York in mid-February and be billeted in Ajijic homes for the duration of the series, which runs February 20 to March 5.

While the generous Cultura Jalisco grant has kept the Northern Lights Festival’s engine churning, there still remains a large shortfall that organizers hope can be recovered by further local donations, sponsors and partners and its enthusiastic group of festival members, devotees and music lovers.

Northern Lights, once thought only a visual spectacle, has become, for our lower latitudes, an enchanting sonorous one in the form of the Northern Lights Festival de Febrero.

Chapala’s annual Carnaval festivities pump up Friday, January 29, leading in to a 12-day program of special events promising to live up to the 2016 slogan “Hagamos Ruido!” (Let’s Make Noise!).

An enjoyable evening is guaranteed when renowned musicians and music educators Daniel Ward and Heidi Swedberg take the stage of the Ajijic Cultural Center on Wednesday, January 27, 7 p.m.