La Paz, May 23 (EFE).- The celebration of the Great Power, the largest folk festival in La Paz listed as a World Heritage Site, will be marked by the use of technologies to improve the dance parade which celebrates its hundredth anniversary this year anniversary “devotion” to this religious image.
The Office of the Mayor of La Paz and the Association of Folklore Groups of Great Power (Acfgp), as well as some private companies that sponsor the event, announced on Tuesday the innovations that the festival will have this year, scheduled for June 3.
One of the novelties will be the installation of a “monitoring center” where the staff of the mayor’s office, the Acfgp and the Bolivian police will carry out checks on the development of the party, the municipal secretary of cultures and tourism , Rodney Miranda, explained to EFE. .
There will also be a mobile application to see “in real time exactly where each of the fraternities are” and if they stop during the tour, in order to avoid the so-called “bumps” or long gaps between each group of dancers .
“In the same mobile application, which will be available two days before the Great Power, it will also be where you will have points of medical attention, the Ombudsman (for children and adolescents), health services, passages for pedestrians,” among others, Miranda detailed.
With these innovations, which will also include the use of drones and walkie-talkies, the aim is to prevent the party from having delays and lasting until dawn the next day, said the mayor of La Paz, Ivan Arias.
CELEBRATION
El Gran Poder was born at the beginning of the last century with indigenous parties in the populous neighborhoods of La Paz, but it became a street folklore spectacle around 1940.
The so-called “Fiesta Mayor de los Andes” consists of a parade of Bolivian folk dances dedicated to the Catholic image of Jesus del Gran Poder and which usually takes place every year between the end of May and the beginning of June.
The queen of the parade is the Morenada, a favorite dance of the Aymaras as it allows them to display their economic power in luxurious masks, costumes, dresses and jewelry.
This year, the festival, recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), will celebrate the centenary of “devotion”, that is- that is, the formal emergence of the first folk brotherhoods dedicated to the Lord of the Great Power.
For this reason, a special advertisement and an official poster have been produced in which dancers are observed at the feet of the patron saint of the celebration.
This year, the participation of 75 fraternities, more than 70,000 dancers and more than 40,000 musicians is expected, according to data from the office of the mayor of La Paz.
Arias pointed out that the Great Power is “the biggest orange economy we have in La Paz”, as it is estimated to have moved between $160 million and $165 million since preparations began in November of the previous year. until the last activities a few days after the folklore parade.
“Only the day of the Great Power moves 55 million dollars. How can we not give importance to this holiday, to this event,” the mayor said, noting that not only the musicians or those who make the costumes of the dancers win the festivity. , but also those engaged, for example, in the itinerant sale of food and transport.
(c) EFE Agency
“Entrepreneur. Amateur gamer. Zombie advocate. Infuriatingly humble communicator. Proud reader.”
