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Popular festival · Caruaru
The June festival of Caruaru, in the Agreste of Pernambuco, the Forró Capital, with concerts at the Pátio de Eventos Luiz Gonzaga, traditional forró (forró pé de serra) at Alto do Moura, and oversized corn-based dishes.
In the photo: Caruaru
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
São João de Caruaru — Caruaru
Throughout June, with programming that usually starts in late May or early June and ends around the feast of Saint Peter on June 29; the highlight is the night before Saint John’s Day.
May/June
Dates change every year: check this year's date before you travel.
The festival
Caruaru, in the Agreste of Pernambuco, is called the Forró Capital and promotes its São João as The Biggest and Best São João in the World, a title it contests with Campina Grande in Paraíba. The city-sponsored festival has existed since the 1980s and fills the town for almost the entire month of June, in honor of the June saints.
The main stage is the Pátio de Eventos Luiz Gonzaga, known as the Pátio do Forró, in the downtown area, where forró artists and performers of other genres play every night. The program spreads across dozens of venues: the old Railway Station, with forró and quadrilhas; the Polo Azulão, dedicated to other music from Pernambuco’s culture; and Alto do Moura, the neighborhood of the clay artisans heir to Mestre Vitalino, which hosts forró pé de serra during the day among the studios.
Oversized dishes are a Caruaru trademark: on scheduled days, cooks prepare record-sized corn dishes and other June recipes in public squares and distribute them to the crowd. There are also quadrilha competitions, performances by bacamarteiros, who fire flintlock-like firearms with dry powder, and São João na Roça held at rural farms.
The festival lets you experience at the same time the music, cuisine, and handicrafts of the Agreste. During the day, it’s worth visiting the Feira de Caruaru, a Brazilian intangible heritage, and the studios in Alto do Moura; at night, the Pátio do Forró.
The São João night at the Pátio do Forró. Forró pé de serra and the Alto do Moura studios. The oversized dishes. The Feira de Caruaru during the day.
Stay near downtown to walk to the Pátio do Forró. Reserve an afternoon for Alto do Moura, where the daytime festivities happen. Nights in the Agreste are usually cool in June. Check the city hall’s program, released before the festival.
Pamonha, canjica, roasted and boiled corn, pé de moleque, corn cake, cuscuz and mungunzá; buchada and carne de sol at restaurants; and quentão.
Accommodation in Caruaru sells out in June. Book in advance; many visitors stay in Recife, about 135 km away, and travel in just for the busiest nights.
In the city
May/June
May/JuneOn the days leading up to Pentecost Sunday, 50 days after Easter; therefore it falls in May or June.
Paraty’s most traditional religious festival, with a novena, processions through the historic center, a solemn Mass and a Sunday Pentecost procession.
May/JuneAround Pentecost Sunday, 50 days after Easter, in May or June; the Cavalhadas begin on Pentecost Sunday and last three days.
The Holy Spirit Festival of the historic town of Pirenópolis, in Goiás, featuring folias (devotional bands), masses, masked horsemen and the Cavalhadas, an equestrian reenactment of the battle between Christians and Moors.
May/June/JulyFor about a month, from late May or early June until late June or early July, with the high points on the eves of Saint Anthony (June 13), Saint John (June 24) and Saint Peter (June 29).
Campina Grande’s June festival, in the Agreste of Paraíba, which fills Parque do Povo for about a month with forró shows, quadrilhas, bonfires and corn-based foods.
Your questions
For almost the entire month of June, generally up to around June 29, Saint Peter’s Day. The most sought-after night is the 23rd, the eve of Saint John’s Day.
The main venue is the Pátio de Eventos Luiz Gonzaga, the Pátio do Forró, in downtown. There are also venues in Alto do Moura, at the Railway Station, and in several neighborhoods.
Festivals and events in Brazil
June/JulyBetween late June and early July, always including June 29, German Settler Day, a municipal holiday in Petrópolis.
Petrópolis’s German Settler festival, featuring traditional German food and beer, folk dance groups, and events around the Crystal Palace.
June/SeptemberEvery two years, in odd-numbered years; usually in September, sometimes in June. · Every two years
Rio de Janeiro’s major book fair, held every two years, with publisher booths, author events and programming for children and young people.
JuneDuring the June festival cycle: the bulls are baptized on June 23 and the cycle ends on June 30, the day of Saint Marçal; performances may continue into July.
São Luís’s São João, centered on the bumba-meu-boi and recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage element: groups of different accents perform in arraiais across the city, with toadas, matracas, zabumbas and embroidered bulls.
June/July/AugustIn July, for about a month, sometimes starting in late June and ending in early August.
Campos do Jordão classical music festival in the Mantiqueira Range, with orchestra and chamber music concerts at the Claudio Santoro Auditorium and other city venues, plus a training program for young musicians.
JuneOn the last weekend of June, over three consecutive nights, from Friday to Sunday.
The rivalry between the Garantido (red) and Caprichoso (blue) bumba-meu-boi groups at the Bumbódromo in Parintins, an island on the Amazon River: three nights of toadas, giant floats and Amazonian legends.
JanuaryOn January 20, the day of the city’s patron saint, which is a municipal holiday in Rio de Janeiro.
The patron saint’s day in Rio de Janeiro, with masses and the procession that carries the saint’s image from Tijuca to the Metropolitan Cathedral in the downtown area.