Northeast Events

The northeastern calendar is musical, religious and unlike the rest of Argentina.

Carnival at Gualeguaychu and Corrientes — January and February

Argentina’s biggest carnivals are here rather than in Buenos Aires. Gualeguaychu in Entre Rios runs a Brazilian-style parade through a purpose-built corsodromo on consecutive weekends through January and February, with competing comparsas of hundreds of dancers, enormous floats and costumes that take a year to build. Corrientes calls itself the national capital of carnival and stages a comparable event with a stronger chamame and Guarani character. Both are serious, expensive, well-organised productions with ticketed seating, and both fill their towns completely.

Gauchito Gil pilgrimage — 8 January, near Mercedes

Several hundred thousand people converge on the roadside shrine of the folk saint Antonio Gil, many walking for days, leaving red flags, candles and offerings. The church does not recognise him and the devotion is enormous; red shrines line the highways across the whole country.

Fiesta Nacional del Chamame — January, Corrientes

Ten days of the regional music in a stadium setting, with dancing that goes on all night.

Jesuit mission sound and light — evenings, San Ignacio

The ruins are lit after dark for a projected show telling the reductions’ story on the standing walls, which sounds gimmicky and is in fact the best way to understand the scale of what stood there. It runs most evenings in season and the ruins are considerably more atmospheric at night than under the subtropical sun.

Iguazu by full moon — monthly

The park opens for a limited number of night walks on the five nights around each full moon, with a lunar rainbow sometimes visible over the Devil’s Throat. Tickets are limited and sell out.