Cuba to host 17th edition of the Timbalaye International Rumba Festival

HAVANA, Cuba, August 15 (ACN) The 17th edition of the Timbalaye 2025 International Rumba Festival will take place in Cuba August 25-31.

Every August, the festival brings new cultural offerings that extend from the city to Cuban neighborhoods.

Dedicated to ancestral voices with the slogan "There's a Congo, Cara!" , this year the Rumba Route will champion the voice of the Congolese legacy in the genre, highlighting the importance of oral tradition, dance, song, and drumming in the formation of Cuban rumba, and its influence on contemporary cultural identity.

According to Timbalaye vice president Irma Castillo, at a press conference, the festival will also highlight African heritage in Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, and will seek to highlight emblematic sites that preserve Congolese culture, both within local and traditional popular culture.

As usual, Castillo explained, Timbalaye will be present throughout Cuba, although in person only in Havana, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, and Villa Clara; the remaining provinces will participate simultaneously with attractive proposals that showcase the artists and groups that carry it in their essence.

With the "Living in the Neighborhoods" Local Development Project, the annual event, which creates new strategies and seeks to raise awareness about the importance of African heritage in national identity, will include concerts, shows, guest artists, dance lessons, visits to historical sites, discussions, and community meetings with emblematic leaders and artists, among other activities.

Regarding international participation, Mora Valiña said that Mexico and Italy will be present, and Panama is yet to be confirmed.

The 17th edition of the Timbalaye International Rumba Festival is dressed in green this year, a color whose significance characterizes today's Cuba: an island that, despite the current situation, is full of hope, awareness, balance, harmony, stability, and resilience, Castillo emphasized.