Timing a trip to Central America to land on a big festival changes the trip completely. It also changes prices and how easy it is to find a bed, so it pays to know what is on before you book a flight.
How to read this calendar. Fixed dates — saints’ days, national holidays, anniversaries — are reliable. Festival and championship dates come from official announcements, but organisers move them more often than they would like to admit. Always confirm on the event’s own site before booking flights or accommodation. This article was last reviewed in September 2026.
Guatemala
1 November: the giant kites of Sumpango
On All Saints’ Day, in Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez, kites of tissue paper up to twenty metres across are raised by teams of neighbours who have spent months building them. Tradition holds that they carry messages to the dead. It is the most striking thing in the Guatemalan calendar.
The same day people eat fiambre, a cold salad of dozens of ingredients made only for this date. Go early: the towns are under an hour from Antigua and the road jams solid.
7 December: the Burning of the Devil
At dusk, neighbourhoods drag out whatever they no longer need and set fire to it alongside an effigy of the devil, cleaning the house before the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Best seen in Antigua and Guatemala City. Spectacular, and very smoky.
21 to 28 March 2027: Holy Week in Antigua
The big one. Carpets of dyed sawdust laid over the cobbles, floats weighing several tonnes carried by dozens of cucuruchos, and processions lasting more than twelve hours. It is widely considered the most spectacular Holy Week in the Americas.
A warning: accommodation in Antigua sells out months ahead and prices multiply. If you want to go, book now.
El Salvador
13 to 19 November 2026: ISA World Longboard Championship
The International Surfing Association’s longboard world title returns to the La Libertad coast for a fourth consecutive year, under the multi-year agreement between the ISA and Surf City El Salvador. It is contested on the long walls of El Sunzal, among the best longboard waves anywhere.
You can watch from the beach for nothing. Book accommodation in El Tunco and El Sunzal well in advance for that week.
All November, and Saturday the 28th: Carnaval de San Miguel
The country’s largest street party. Through November there are carnavalitos in the neighbourhoods of San Miguel, and on Saturday 28 November 2026 the main carnival takes over: dozens of stages with live bands across the city, a float parade and streets full until dawn. It has been formally recognised as cultural heritage since 2008.
Honduras
October: Semana Morazánica
The long October holiday that bundles several national anniversaries into a single week off. It is when Hondurans travel inside their own country: the islands and the coast fill up and prices rise. A good week to see the country in motion, a bad one to look for a room at short notice.
November: the Tzikin ceremony at Copán
A ceremony of Maya origin held by the Ch’ortí people around the Copán archaeological site, running through the month. One of the few chances to see living Maya ritual at a site of that stature.
December: giant chimneys and Christmas markets
The Paseo de las Chimeneas Gigantes in Santa Bárbara, with multi-metre paper and wood structures lit from inside, and the Baile del Gigante at Lejamaní. In the west, the Christmas market at Gracias makes the most of the cool mountain air. On the Caribbean coast, Garifuna communities hold their own year-end celebrations with drums and punta.
Nicaragua
28 November to 8 December: La Purísima
Novenas to the Immaculate Conception run across the country for nearly two weeks, with home altars, singing and sweets handed out to anyone who comes.
7 December: La Gritería
The most Nicaraguan night of the year. At six in the evening the fireworks start and someone shouts “¿Quién causa tanta alegría?” — who brings such joy? — and everyone answers “¡La Concepción de María!”. Families open their houses, show their altar and hand out sweets, fruit and small gifts to whoever passes. It is strongest in León and Granada.
It is a domestic and a street festival at the same time, and one of the most distinctive things in the region. The night before, 6 December, Bluefields holds its own Gritería on the Caribbean coast.
Costa Rica
October: Limón Carnival
Around 12 October, Día de las Culturas, Puerto Limón fills with comparsas, calypso and costume parades in the country’s most important Afro-Caribbean celebration.
31 October: Día de la Mascarada
Mascaradas are giant figures with enormous heads that chase people down the street to the sound of a brass cimarrona band. A very Costa Rican tradition, strongest in Escazú, Barva and Cartago.
Late December: Fiestas de Zapote and the Tope
From 25 December into the first days of January, the Zapote fairground in San José hosts the year’s biggest fair: bullfighting in the Costa Rican style, where the bull is not killed, free concerts, funfair rides and food stalls.
On 26 December comes the Tope Nacional, a parade of thousands of horses through central San José, followed the next day by the Carnival. Confirm the exact dates for the 2026–27 edition, which are announced in December.
Mid-January: Fiestas de Palmares
Twelve days of concerts, horse parade, carnival and bullring that draw more than a million people to a small town in Alajuela. The most heavily attended popular festival in the country.
Panama
All November: the Month of the Homeland
November is by far the best month to see Panama celebrating. Five national dates fall within it: the 3rd (separation from Colombia, 1903), the 4th (Flag Day), the 5th (Colón Day), the 10th (the first call for independence, at La Villa de Los Santos) and the 28th (independence from Spain).
On the 3rd and 4th the capital fills with parades: school bands, drum corps, majorettes and delegations marching through Casco Antiguo and along Vía España for hours. It is loud, extremely long and a great deal of fun. Bring water and sun protection, and expect road closures.
January: jazz, coffee and polleras
- Panama Jazz Festival, mid-month, one of Latin America’s leading jazz festivals, with open-air concerts in Casco Antiguo and at Ciudad del Saber.
- Feria de las Flores y del Café in Boquete, the highlands’ big event, with gardens, orchids and tastings of high-altitude coffee.
- Desfile de las Mil Polleras in Las Tablas, where thousands of women parade through the town in the national dress.
6 to 9 February 2027: Carnival
The biggest festival in the country, the four days before Ash Wednesday. The centre of it is Las Tablas, on the Azuero peninsula, where the rival neighbourhoods of Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo have been competing for more than a century over the best queen, the best float and the best song. Mornings are for the culecos, getting soaked by water tankers.
The whole country stops for those days. Book accommodation in Azuero far ahead, or stay in Chitré.
Belize
19 November 2026: Garifuna Settlement Day
Belize’s great day and the best reason to visit in November. It marks the arrival of the Garifuna at Dangriga in 1832 and has been a national holiday since 1977.
It begins before dawn with the Yurumein: at around 6:30 in the morning, Garifuna descendants come ashore in dugout canoes, singing and drumming, re-enacting that arrival. Parades, drumming, punta and food follow — cassava bread, hudut and sere.
It is felt most strongly in Dangriga, the Garifuna heart of the country, and also in Hopkins, Punta Gorda and Belize City. It is a public holiday, so transport and services run on reduced hours.
February 2027: San Pedro Carnival
On Ambergris Caye, in the days before Ash Wednesday, with comparsas, painted streets and the burning of Don Juan Carnaval at the end.
March 2027: La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge
A four-day canoe race covering roughly 290 kilometres of the Belize River from San Ignacio to Belize City, following a route the Maya used for trade. It is the country’s great sporting event, watched from the bridges and the banks.
A note about concerts
We deliberately do not list individual concert line-ups here. Tours are announced and cancelled at a few weeks’ notice, and a list of artists goes stale before you have bought a ticket.
For that, local ticketing platforms are far more useful once you have your travel dates fixed. The region’s large venues are in Panama City, San José and Guatemala City, which is where most international tours stop.
The festivals you can genuinely plan around months ahead are the ones above: they hold the same dates year after year and form part of each country’s cultural calendar.
