Cusco Region Events

Cusco’s festival calendar is among the densest in the Americas and mixes Catholic feast days with Inca timing.

Inti Raymi — 24 June

The festival of the sun, staged at the winter solstice. The Inca original was suppressed by the Spanish in 1572 and reconstructed in 1944 from the chronicles, and it is now a large theatrical production with hundreds of costumed performers moving between Qorikancha, the main square and Sacsayhuaman, where the main ceremony is held on the terraces before a crowd of tens of thousands. It is unashamedly a performance, but it is also the focus of a week in which the whole city is out and every district holds its own events, and the surrounding parades of school and community groups are arguably the better part.

Corpus Christi Thursday — May or June

Fifteen saints and virgins are carried from their parish churches into the cathedral in procession, and the city eats chiri uchu. This is the older and more genuinely local of the two great festivals.

Qoyllur Rit’i — May or June

A pilgrimage to a glacier at nearly 5,000 metres near Ausangate, drawing tens of thousands for several days of dancing and ritual at extreme altitude. UNESCO-listed and quite unlike anything staged for visitors.

Virgen del Carmen — mid-July, Paucartambo

Three days of masked dancing in a small town four hours from Cusco, with troupes performing through the streets and on the rooftops, and a genuinely local rather than staged atmosphere.

Santurantikuy — 24 December

A large craft and nativity-figure market filling Cusco’s main square on Christmas Eve.