Festival of Industry, Trade and Culture

What it is

Once a year, the Colombian city of Itagüí gives over eight days to a gathering that mixes the arts with commerce. Music, painting, photography, theatre and dancing all have a place in what it stages. The city administration organises it and presents it as a way of showing local culture and the city's trading traditions. Those three words in its title, industry, trade and culture, name what it sets out to display. The occasion belongs to the city rather than to any religious body, and no single faith is attached to it.

Origins and history

In the middle and later years of the 1980s, officials in Itagüí wanted an event that would stand for the city's culture and for the way it traded. Their starting point was a day the city had been marking since 1984, the World Day of Laziness, which people locally and nationally took to. That response gave the administration confidence, and in 1989 it launched a longer festival lasting eight days and finishing with the same lazy day. The most recent edition of the festival was held in 2012.

The lazy day

Before the festival existed, Itagüí already had a day of its own. From 1984 the city marked the World Day of Laziness, a celebration that found favour both inside the city and across the country. When the longer festival was created in 1989, this day was kept as its final act, so eight days of music, pictures and performance ended on a note of rest. Its name turns idleness into something worth honouring, and that is how the city presented it.

What it means

The festival was meant to say something about Itagüí to the wider country. The city administration wanted an event that stood for local culture and for the area's trading traditions, and the programme of music, theatre, paintings and photographs was how it chose to do that. The three words in the title make the aim plain: a city at work, and a city that makes things. Because the World Day of Laziness had been welcomed by people near and far, officials believed a larger event of the same kind would be accepted too.

How Festival of Industry, Trade and Culture is kept

The city administration of Itagüí organises the festival and runs it across eight days. During that time, the programme offers music, photography, painting, dancing and theatre. The eight days finish with the World Day of Laziness, the celebration the city had kept since 1984, which serves as the closing act. That is the shape the festival took from 1989 onward. Its most recent edition was held in 2012.

When and where

It ran once a year for eight days. The closing day was the World Day of Laziness, which Itagüí began marking in 1984. The festival itself started in 1989. The most recent edition recorded is from 2012, with none noted after that year.

It belongs to Itagüí, a city in Colombia. That is the only place the festival is tied to; it is a local event for the city rather than something spread across the country or beyond. The World Day of Laziness that closes it was accepted by local and national communities, which suggests word of it travelled past the city.

What Festival of Industry, Trade and Culture means

The title carries the message. Itagüí wanted an event that spoke for the culture of the place and for its trading traditions, so industry, commerce and culture are named side by side. The closing day adds a second idea: that rest is worth setting aside time for. Taken together, the eight days present a city that works and also keeps one day for doing nothing.

Questions people ask about Festival of Industry, Trade and Culture

See also

Barranquilla CarnivalA four-day street festival of music, masquerade and dance in coastal ColombiaDay of the Holy InnocentsA 28 December day of pranks and fake news, kept in the Spanish-speaking worldBlacks and Whites' CarnivalA week of street games, parades and music held every January in Pasto, ColombiaCali FairA six-day Colombian celebration of salsa music, street parades, and regional culture

Good reading and sources

• Festival of Industry, Trade and Culture (Itagüí) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.