Costa Maya Festival Brings the Island to Life – Performance Highlights

The San Pedro International Costa Maya Festival has come and gone and it proved to be another successful event filled with music, dance, music, culture, beauty, food and entertainment for the entire family. The island of Ambergris Caye was once again jam-packed with visitors from all around the country and international tourists.

Whether or not the visitors to the island arrived to attend the festival, it was still Costa Maya Weekend in San Pedro and just the name signaled a super fun weekend for anybody on Ambergris Caye. People flooded the many beach parties, night club and local establishments were joyous of all the activity and business it brought.

At the festival grounds, the attendants got to witness the crowning of the new Miss Costa Maya 2014 Miss Mexico, Elisa Gomez on Thursday, August 7. The pageant was very well attended as it has always been a big draw during the festival.

Friday, August 8, saw the participation of great performers both local and international. The Ballet Folklorico de Quintana Roo, Mexico opened the festival with a flag parade in honor of the eight participating countries in the festival and delighted the crowd with several dance presentations that included dance styles from the countries of Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, Belize and Honduras. They then performed traditional dances native to various Mexican states.

The Ballet Folklorico de Quintana Roo, Mexico

A highlight of the evening was the performance by Belize’s world renown Garifuna Collective band who gave their first performance in Belize at the festival just coming out of their successful European tour. It was an honor of having the Garifuna Collective perform at the festival as they showed the local audience why they have been so popular abroad and have won various awards. Their sounds and music were very well received by everybody in attendance; it was a full cultural experience.

Rounding up the evening’s entertainment was Hawaiian native and reggae artist J Boog who delighted with his hit songs of “Let’s do it again” and “Sunshine Girl.” The party continued under the party tent as Dj music kept the crowd going until the wee hours of the morning.

Garifuna Collective

J Boog

Saturday, August 9, marked the last day of the festival nights which were highlighted by performances from dance group Grupo Crash from El Salvador, which has become an annual sensation at the festival. They entertained with both modern, energetic routines and cultural performances native to their country. Following was the Belize National Dance Company that never fails to entertain with their energetic dance routines that included a Carnaval-themed performance that paid tribute to the eight participating countries of the festival.

Just before the main performers of the evening took to the stage, local reggaeton artist Ralf West entertained with three original songs and Guatemalan singer Cecy Gariddo also pumped up the crowd with her interpretations of modern hit songs. The evening belonged to Industria del Amor as they had the crowd waiting in anticipation for their performance. They closed off the festival with a bang with performances of their top hits.

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