San Sebastián Street Festival
The street of San Sebastián in Old San Juan is the focus for a big festival every year in January. A carnival atmosphere pervades the block as fairground rides, food stalls and live music take over the area.
By day, locals parade in processions of traditional Puerto Rican masks (vejigantes) which are vibrantly coloured in red, yellow and blue and carved into grotesque and comical shapes.
As dusk falls, the live music and sound systems gear up to provide a party in which young and old gyrate to salsa, merengue and Puerto Rican classic tunes.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Name: | La Casita Tourist Information Centre |
| Phone: | +1 787 724 4788 |
| Address: | Plaza de la Dársena |
| Venue Information: | Old San Juan |
| Full Name: | |
| Old San Juan is the only walled city in the Caribbean, founded by the Spanish in 1521 as a stopover en route to Spain for ships carrying gold, silver, slaves, plants and jewels plundered from the newly colonised Americas. | |
| The wealth stored in San Juan by conquistadors and their loyal merchants was a magnet for numerous European pirates and armies, including Sir Francis Drake, who tried to take the city in 1595, and the Dutch General Boudewin Hendricksz, who attempted the same thing in 1625. None of them managed it thanks to the four hefty forts such as El Morro, La Fortaleza and San Cristobal and the high sandstone city walls. Inside the fortified walls is a maze of narrow cobbled streets lined with brightly painted 17th- and 18th-century colonial-era houses. Local homes are decorated with wrought-iron balconies and hanging baskets of flowers. Shops, restaurants and bars enliven the atmospheric historic centre as do museums, churches and theatres. Don't miss the Gothic Cathedral of San Juan, erected in 1540 by seafarers grateful to have escaped shipwreck in the stormy waters of the Caribbean. | |
| Directions: | In the eastern side of San Juan on the north coast of Puerto Rico. La Casita, overlooking San Juan Bay near Pier 1, is a good place to start your tour since it is a tourist information centre and has free maps of the area and brochures setting the district in its historical context. |
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Name: | La Casita Tourist Information Centre |
| Phone: | +1 787 724 4788 |
| Address: | Plaza de la Dársena |
| Name: | Puerto Rico Tourism Company |
| Location: | Puerto Rico |
| Address: | La Princesa Building, 2 Paseo La Princesa, Old San Juan, PR 00902 |
| Phone: | +1 787 721 2400 |
Event details can change. Please check with the organisers that the event is happening before making travel arrangements.
