The Ciranda Festival

24 Aug 2012 - 26 Aug 2012
Place: Manacapuru - Amazon

During the three nights of the festival, three Ciranda groups perform and show to the local public all their magic. These competitor groups are: Ciranda Traditional, Guerreiros Mura (mura warriors) and Flor Matizada (colorful flower).

The city´s name Manacapuru means blue flower in the indigenous language.

This dance groups always performs in a reserved place called Cirandrodomo, specially build to be the home of cirandeiros (players), and where they can play in total safety away from the streets. The dancing usually begins few days before the festival starts and the city gets full. People from everywhere, Manaus by car and from the more inaccessible villages by boat to enjoy this festival.

The ciranda was introduced in the Amazon during the 70`s and it is inspired by European dance groups, the 1st Festival happened in 1997 and it was so successful that the city´s mayor decide to create the Ciranda Festival to promote Manacapuru and bring more visitors to the city.

Nowadays the festival represents a good influxto the city and also helps to promote Manacapuru as touristic place with hotel service and a good tourist infra-structure.

But the cirandas performances are not exclusively showed in Manacapuru, in Manaus it is possible to see them as well during the June and July celebrations where we have many different cultural expressions.