What is the Festival de Gran Poder in La Paz?

Festival de Gran Poder is La Paz’s most extravagant cultural and religious street festival. It happens every year, late May or early June. You can see over 40,000 indigenous dancers and musicians moving through the city in a long procession, all to honour Jesus Christ.

For many people, it feels like this event is a breathtaking show of Aymara economic might plus deep devotion, not just pageantry. Neighbourhood fraternities keep rehearsing and practising complex choreographies year after year. The dancers step out in custom costumes, really incredibly heavy, covered with real jewels and gold threading, and a few of those outfits can end up costing thousands of dollars to produce or restore.