PICNIC con Los Panas
The Venezuelan Festival
PICNIC con Los Panas
Previous
Next
The Picnic con los Panas Venezuelan Festival is an annual celebration of Venezuelan culture. Calgarian families could spend the day discovering and learning about Venezuelan culture and gastronomy. “Arepas”, “cachapas”, “tequenos”, “empanadas”, “pastelitos, filled with beef,chicken, and cheese”, “bienmesabe cake”, “tres leches cake”, “quesillos” (flan), and natural juices like “Papelon con Limon”, Pasion Fruits, and “Chicha” are just a few of the Venezuelan dishes that are available during this event but are difficult to get in Calgary.
The VCAC hosts ten hours of entertainment, which includes live music performances on stage by local musicians and folkloric dances from Venezuela. The live performances are of a very high standard. The live music starts with a five-piece assembly band called Joropo Music, a fandango-like musical style. The harp, the cuatro, the drums, and the maracas are necessary musical instruments. It was performed by Alma Llanera, a group renowned for its stellar performances. The Gaitas Group assembled the other group, which consists of thirteen musicians. “Stampede Gaitera” is a group that plays the traditional “Gaita Zuliana,” a dance and song form from Maracaibo, Zulia State, in Venezuela. Gaita’s concert featured the El Cuatro, La Charrasca, El Furro, and La Tambora among other instruments. Songs can have romantic or political topics. In Zulia State, Venezuela, the gaitas are normal throughout the year, although they are common all over the country around Christmas. Mango Sound, Adagio, Hybrid2 Rock Band, and Aguaquina are the other four groups singing at this event, and they sing other types of traditional Venezuelan music like salsa, merengue, pop music, and rock. We also invite a minimum of three other Hispanic communities to perform traditional dance or music. This event provides the community with several advantages.
There will be entertainment for kids, adults, and elders at this free family event, as well as information on other local cultures, food, and music. This gathering is open to the entire Calgarian community.
The Venezuelan Canadian Association of Calgary, in partnership with Cantares Venezuelan Cultural Foundation, has hosted, since 2013, the Venezuelan Culture Days (VCD). The event consists of letting know the Calgarian Community the Venezuelan culture’s multiple expressions through folklore, dance, music, film, theater, food, and craft.
The VCD consists of four sub-events which are described below:
Gala Concert: A musician group always performs it from Venezuela to delight the attendees with a magnificent repertoire of Venezuelan music, excellent artists, and excellent quality of interpretation. The idea is to achieve this Gala Concert with artists that are not only recognized in Venezuela but also internationally recognized or have obtained awarded such as American Music Awards, Grammy Awards, or the Billboard Music Award. The intention is that the attendees learn about the typical Venezuelan folklore, the different instruments required to create Venezuelan music and learn about the various melodies that characterize Venezuelan Folklore.
Movie Night: Over the last two decades, the Venezuelan film industry has been experiencing an awakening, and today the popularity of the country’s striking feature films continues to rise. The movies filmed in Venezuela are characterized for representing its history, the spectacular tourism places that describe Venezuela and Latino America, the culturally rich, and Venezuela’s actual situation.
The films played in the Venezuelan Culture Days are characterized for the exposition of the Venezuelan history, the tourism places and the rich cultural heritage at the heart of Latin America, and the social divisions and regional issues that continue to reign supreme in modern Venezuela.
Spanish Theater:
Historically, the theater has been recognized as an educational medium because theater has been used to educate, inform, inspire, and entertain. During the Venezuelan Culture Days event, the themes performed on stage aim to show, inform, and educate attendees about a specific topic from Venezuela or Latin America. Local artists perform this event to promote and show different topics of Spanish diversity and the Latin American culture with the highest excellence performances in producing theater.
Taste of Venezuela:
Food and Cultural Fair: a tour around Venezuela through its flavors, crafts, music, and folklore dance to showcase the vibrant culture of Venezuela. In this festival of flavors, all the family will have a unique opportunity to learn by tasting the typical Venezuelan food and watching the high-quality performances of the different musician groups invited to entertain the community.
Venezuelan artists are always present to exhibit their fabulous high-quality arts & crafts.
English 
Spanish