Mariachi Festival
Organizers of the upcoming International Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara have announced dates for the traditional series of gala concerts at the Degollado Theater.
The six galas are scheduled on August 29, 30, September 2, 3, 4 and 5 and will feature some of the top names in the mariachi genre, as well as the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra and invited singers. Groups include Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, Los Camperos de Nato Cano and Mariachi Americas de Don Jesus Rodriguez de Hijar. Prices for the concerts range from 450 to 2,150 pesos.
The International Mariachi Festival runs from August 28 to September 7 and includes many free performances in Guadalajara’s public spaces and shopping malls, as well as a colorful opening parade in the city center on Sunday, August 31.
Mariachi bands from various foreign climes have added favor to the festival over the past two decades, including the likes of Peru, Croatia, Cuba, Italy, Belgium, Chile, France, Argentina, Panama, Japan, Ecuador, Colombia, Australia, Venezuela, Aruba, Costa Rica, Canada and the United States.
Other elements of the festival include “mariachi masses” at the Guadalajara and Zapopan cathedrals, art exhibits, a beauty pageant to choose the festival’s “ambassador,” music workshops and an attempt at the Guinness world record for the most mariachi musicians playing simultaneously (Sunday, September 7 in the Plaza de las Amercas in Zapopan).
For more information about the festival log on to www.mariachi-jalisco.com.mx.
Cabañas makeover
One of Guadalajara’s premier cultural attractions, the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, is to get makeover to the tune of 23 million pesos (1.8 million dollars). A large chunk of the funds will be spent on restoring the dome of the Capilla Mayor, where Jose Clemente Orozco painted his acclaimed “Man on Fire” mural. The Cabañas is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the most visited museum in Jalisco.
New view at zoo
A novelty at the expansive Guadalajara Zoo is the chance to borrow binoculars to get close up views of the animals while riding the popular Sky Zoo ride. There’s no charge but IDs will be retained. Sky Zoo rides cost an additional 36 pesos.
More photo radars
Metro drivers slow down! Guadalajara has just received another 16 radar photo cameras which it plans to install on the Periferico and Avenidas Patria, Guadalalupe, Adolfo Horn, Lazaro Cardenas, Aviacion, San Isidro and the highway to Zapotlanejo. Accidents have been reduced about 40 percent in the areas that the cameras now serve. In the case of the five cameras that are now at stoplights, accidents have been reduced 70 percent, traffic officials say.
Graffiti reduction
Metro area municipal governments are spending a bundle on cleaning up graffiti this year. So far 125,000 square meters of what city fathers call “an attack on order and public peace” have been wiped out in Guadalajara, and 190,000 in Zapopan. Some six million pesos has been spent so far in 2014.
The capital of Jalisco has a full-time team working just in the downtown area and other mobile anti-graffiti units roaming throughout the city. They have a special machine to clean up the guerilla “art” off of cantera (sandstone).