According to the city’s Secretariat of Culture, Recreation, and Sport, the festivities kicked off with an event called the “Conciertazo de Verano” (Great Summer Concert) at Simon Bolivar Park, featuring groups such as Calibre 50, Luister La Voz, Proyecto A, and Jhon Onofre, among other guest artists.

Local authorities also invited to participate in a new edition of “Sube Monserrate” (Climb Monserrate), a now-traditional sporting challenge in the city that involves traversing more than two kilometers uphill and climbing 1,605 steps to the summit of the hill of the same name.

For the coming Thursday—the actual date of the city’s founding—citizens have been invited to enjoy the capital’s most iconic dish during the “Sabor Bogota” (Flavor of Bogota) contest. Competitors will vie to prepare the best *ajiaco santafereno*, a soup requiring various potato varieties, chicken, corn, seasonings, heavy cream, and capers.

The Classic and Vintage Car Parade will take place on August 22, and that same day marks the start of the “Vallenato al Parque” festival, bringing together genre artists such as Otto Serge, Beto Zabaleta, Elder Dayan, Los Diablitos, and Ana del Castillo.

The following day, Carrera Septima (Seventh Avenue) will transform into a cultural corridor of music, dance, and color for a new edition of the traditional “Desfile de Comparsas” (Troupe Parade), which will travel along the popular street from the La Santamaria Cultural Plaza to the centrally located Plaza de Bolivar.

VThe festival lineup also includes concerts celebrating the city’s birthday, featuring performances by the Youth Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and the Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside Colectivo Colombia. Although there is no record of a formal act establishing the city, August 6, 1538, is recognized as its founding date.

It is believed that on that day, the priest Domingo de las Casas officiated the first mass in a thatched-roof church located near the site of the current cathedral or present-day Santander Park.

According to oral tradition, the region was named the New Kingdom of Granada at that time, and the settlement became known as Santa Fe—a name to which “Bogota” was later added.

las/ifs