Ivan Neville. Source: Wikimedia Commons The Fourth Annual Jungle Jam in Jaco Beach is already one of Costa Rica's premier musical events, but this year's Jungle Jam will truly shine thanks to the performances of two high-caliber musicians whose legendary body of work includes playing next to the Rolling Stones, the Allman Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Herbie Hancock, and others. As previously rep...

December 29, 2013 Jaco, Costa Rica -- Slightly Stoopid, the Ocean Beach/San Diego, CA group led by multi-instrumentalists and founding members, Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald, will headline Jungle Jam IV January 16-19, 2014 in Jaco, Costa Rica. Slightly Stoopid will be joined by special guest Don Carlos of Black Uhuru. Featuring four days of continuous music, this year’s party in the jungle...

Tope Nacional in San Jose Costa RicaIf you are big fan of the “Tope”, today Thursday December 26 is your day, as the annual Tope Nacional, with more than 5,000 horseback riders, takes over the main streets of downtown San Jose Costa Rica. The horseback riders and their horses will gather on the east side of La Sabana and start making their way along Paseo Colón and onto Avenida Segunda after 1...

The end of the year in southern Costa Rica turns a little devilish. This is when the indigenous Boruca community celebrates their ancestral “Fiesta de los Diablitos", or the Festival of Little Devils, a four-day annual event happening from Dec. 30 to Jan. 2. The end-of-the-year festival takes place in the village of Boruca on the tribe’s indigenous reservation in the Talamanca Mountains, 25 km ...

Source: Flickr Commons In Costa Rica, Christmas and the end of the year holidays bring a lot of cheer to residents and visitors. One of the most expected events of the holiday season is called Toros a la Tica, which some people wrongly characterize as bullfights, but in reality they fall somewhere in between the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona and the North American rodeos. Ostensibly, these ...

This past Saturday December 14 was the 2nd Nosara Artisans Holiday Art Fair at The Gilded Iguana. Thirty artists living in Nosara displayed their ceramics, fabric art, furniture, glass art, jewelry, mosaics, paintings, photos, prints, upcycled art, and wood carving. Several community organizations participated as well. There was face painting for Escuelita Verano and holiday gifts from the new...

When is beer and chocolate a good combination? When it takes place as part of the holiday festivities in Costa Rica. From December 20th to 22nd, the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo, province of Limon, will be home to the 2nd Annual Chocolate Festival to be held at the Koki Beach Park. Craft beer will be one of the highlights of this festival, which will feature the introduction of a special brew th...

The Nosara 2013 Cultural Festival was carried out with a completely full arena and the streets flooded with color, music and people. For the second time, Nosara’s Integral Development Association (ADIN) organized the festival with the help of residents of La Esperanza, Garza, Delicias, Barco Quebrado and Nicoya who joined in for the family activities. This year saw more action than last. The...

Spending your Christmas holidays in Costa Rica and wondering what to do? The capital city of San José has a lot going on. So get your Santa hat and festive cheer ready, and let the rhythm of Christmas in Latin America dash you away! Christmas in San José, Costa Rica, is a lively, fun time. The city is ablaze with huge lighted Christmas trees adorning the front of the Children’s Hospital on Pase...

The Nosara Red Cross is organizing a family-friendly horse ride with the goal of raising funds for their special vertical rescue unit. The event will be this Saturday, December 14 and will start from the soccer field in La Esperanza. The tour will travel through several different parts of the Nosaran countryside, such as Playa Guiones and Garza. Carlos Villalobos, head of the Red Cross in No...

The Costa Rica Star recently published about cowboys and horse culture in Guanacaste Costa Rica. Time to polish up your cowboy boots and belt buckles to look spiffy for the next round of traditional community festivals. This season the first community to host fiestas in the canton of Nicoya will be Caimital, this weekend from December 13 to 16. According to Maria Teresa Salas Murillo, presid...

With the participation of the Latin American Motocross champion, Ricardo Chacon, and the runner-up Roberto Castro, as well as the national women’s champion Melissa Tencio, who is only 14 years old, the Guanacaste Motocross championship final will be held in Nosara on December 15 at 9 a.m. The race will complement the events of the second Nosara Christmas cultural festival, organized by the Nosara ...

For the past nine years, downtown Nicoya has been lit up during the month of December with the Festival of Light celebration. The main day of this year’s festival, Nicoya Shines 2013, will be on Saturday, December 7th. On that date, the program includes the presentation of 15 bands from Costa Rica and Panama to commemorate the 165th anniversary of the Canton of Nicoya, which was established as ...

The holiday season in Costa Rica is usually brimful and awash with parades featuring elaborate displays of carrozas (floats), marching bands, carnival dance performances, live music, tasty (yet not very healthy) food, family activities, and -of course- lots of beer. This year, however, the Nicoya Brilla (Shines) Parade will be missing one key sponsor and participant: Cerveza Imperial. We are ju...

Now in its fourth year, the magic and wonder of previous incarnations of Envision Festival have driven anticipation for the transformational excursion on the beaches and in the jungles of Costa Rica each February. With a new location and a much higher profile for the annual blending of conscious music, visionary art, and spiritual enlightenment, this year's lineup has been the subject of much ...

The community of Nosara will come together next Saturday, November 30th to celebrate the 2013 Nosara Ecological Blue Flag Community Festival, with the objective of recognizing the environmental efforts of a diverse group of organizations and individuals from the area. Jessica Sheffield, one of the event’s five organizers, explained that for the occasion there will be at least 15 stands of organ...

Music fans who were disappointed by the announcement that the Caricaco Music Festival would not be held in 2013 will be delighted to know that it is being planned, bigger and better, for March of 2014. Alejandro Gutierrez, producer of the festival, let the Voice of Guanacaste know that the festival will be moved to a new open-air venue at Finca Austria, in Nosara across the river, with the goal...

Source: UCR Music, theater and folklore were showcased alongside science, research and community development at the recent Guanacaste Expo of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). This major cultural and social event kicked off on November 6th at the Guanacaste Museum in Liberia, and it was deemed a sheer success by organizers who are pleased with the ongoing development and growth that this provi...

Although the response was very cold when they started organizing the Guanacaste Art Festival in July, things have heated up, and now it promises to be quite a lavish display of talent from November 21 to 24 in the city of Tilaran. The regional promoter of culture for the province, Vera Vargas, indicated to the Voice of Guanacaste that they finally received more inscriptions than they anticipate...

Best Fest is a 3 day (February 7th - 9th, 2014) grassroots music festival nestled between pristine jungle and one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, Playa Ballena. The organizers routinely say that their location is one of the headliners of the festival and for good reason. The epic venue is located on a 2000 acre farm, just south of Uvita, and is a one of a kind environment where w...

The La Esperanza Development Association is preparing to host fiestas in the community to raise funds for use in their own projects and to help the Nosara Red Cross. The festivities will be held from December 12 to 15 and will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the association. Rides, bulls, music and food sales are some of the highlights that those attending will enjoy. Carlos Villalobo...

Source: ANDRÉS GARITA, La Nacion It has been 192 years since the final defeat of the Spanish in the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) when the authorities in Guatemala declared the independence of all of Central America. And so now, every year a flaming torch is carried from Guatemala starting on Sept. 11 all the way to the former colonial capital of Costa Rica in Cartago, symbolizing th...

There are two important dates to celebrate in September: the first is Children’s Day on September 9 and the second is the Celebration of National Independence on September 15. For Children’s Day every year the David Kitson Library holds a spelling bee, mathematics games and science quests for the third through sixth graders of Serapio Lopez Fajardo Elementary School. This year we will extend t...

Still from a Costa Rican short film entry. Luck has not run out for film lovers in Costa Rica. Hollywood celebrities such as Danny Glover were recently here at the Flowers of the Diaspora Film Festival in honor of Afro-Costa Rican Heritage Month, and the 2013 Costa Rica International Film Festival, Peace with Earth, is scheduled for October 11th to the 19th. Before then, however, shnit will go...

Today is Día del Niño (Children's Day) here in Costa Rica and I had the chance to celebrate with the kids, parents and teacher from the Escuela de Playa Hermosa Guanacaste in Carrillo. The Playa Hermosa School is a small school with 25 students in grades 1 through 7. It's quite literally a "one room schoolhouse" run tightly and passionately by it's headmaster (maestro) and teacher, Mr. Javier Rosa...

The Southern Caribbean Society of the School for the Arts (Spanish acronym: EDACS), the Municipality of Talamanca and the Chamber of Tourism and Commerce of the Southern Caribbean (Spanish acronym: CATCCAS) cordially invite you to ArteViva, a special festival that features art, music, gastronomy, film, sports, and a permanent program in arts for the people of Puerto Viejo in Talamanca, Costa Rica....

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your business press release, please contact us. Costa Rica´s ecotourism industry, which is committed to sustainability and responsible tourism, is preparing the fourth edition of the Planet, People, and Peace International Conference, to be held from November 3rd to 6th at the National Auditorium of the Children´s Museum. The conference will a...

Patiently, expectantly, I gazed across deep indigo waters, ponderous swells rolling gently beneath the boat, our outboard motor silent. Suddenly eighty yards away an enormous dark sea creature broke through the surface, its long pectoral fins or flippers waving in the air, only to crash thunderously down and disappear into the ocean off Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. It was the thrill of a lifetime t...

Costa Rica celebrates Afro-Costa Rican heritage in August of each year, and this year's activities are strongly focused on film. The Costa Rica Star has already written about the Flowers of the African Diaspora Film Festival currently playing at Cine Magaly in San Jose; now the Southern Caribbean Chamber of Commerce and Tourism (CATCCAS in Spanish) invites you to enjoy part of the film festival in...

Source: Flickr CC Film lovers in Costa Rica rejoice: you have a few options to enjoy some very fine selections and even meet celebrities of the seventh art in August, September and October. Over the next few weeks, Costa Rica will be a haven of the silver screen with three thematic festivals that will feature domestic films, international offerings and Hollywood blockbusters. Plus, famous acto...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to cover your business press release, please contact us. The first regional Franchise Fair (Expo-Franquicias 2013) will soon take place in Costa Rica. More than 8,000 investors interested in buying and selling franchises in Mexico, Uruguay, the United States, Spain and Panama are expected to attend. The activity will be held on September 26 and 27 at th...

A range of dazzling outfits designed by a highly creative mix of designers from countries like Mexico, USA, Colombia and Honduras were showcased at the recently concluded 11th edition of Costa Rica Fashion Week 2013. Held in San Jose, the capital city of the Latin American nation of Costa Rica, the event featured more than forty catwalk shows that highlighted ready-to-wear, haute couture and c...

The 14th edition of Costa Rica's International Book Fair in 2013 will feature a couple of surprises. The most significant is that it will finally offer free admission to the public thanks to a resolution by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Athletics to provide more than 50 million colones (about $100,000) for the fair. In the past, the International Book Fair in Costa Rica had been a largely com...

Source: UCR In order to comply with Resolution 64/460 of the United Nations, which calls for a ten-year period of research, study and celebration of the international heritage of African people around the world starting in 2013, the University of Costa Rica has organized a series of events throughout August in the Caribbean region. This year also marks the 15th anniversary of the Day of the...

Eight groups and soloists will participate this year in the Credomatic Music Festival. There are three in particular that no one should miss: the Juvenile Accordion Orchestra of Baden Württemberg, the organist Martin Arndt Henzelmann, and the violinist Gidon Kremer. These artists count with indisputable recognition and are the highlights of the music festival, which will take place between ...

A Friday afternoon at 11 am hardly sounds like the perfect time for an Afro-Cuban Jazz show and hosting it at the Public Library in Limon makes it sound even less perfect. Electrical storms and heavy rains had closed schools and caused flooding that morning. But against all odds the Joel La Rue Smith Trio, played a captivating set to the 30 or so people who came to be a part of Costa Rica’s 2013 I...

Cheese, cheese, cheese and more cheese. The Santa Cruz Feria Del Queso (Santa Cruz Cheese Festival) is perhaps Costa Rica's greatest undiscovered culinary event for any tourist who does not mind severe constipation. It is a month of dairy delight culminating in the final Sunday unveiling of Costa Rica's largest cheese. Ever. It will probably remain undiscovered by most tourists because even wi...

At 3 p.m., the traditional Annexation Tope horse parade began a tour of the main streets of Nicoya, amidst a very festive mood and passion for the equine culture, organized by the Nicoya Riders Association (ASOCANI). This is the eighth consecutive year that ASOCANI has handled the planning. Ronald Montero, vice president, said this year around 400 riders successfully participated from Hojancha...

Long live Nicoya in peace! With these opening words, Marta Arauz, coordinator of the Annexation International Cultural Festival, welcomed hundreds of people who attended to enjoy an evening of music and dance in the Colonial City. The Technical Professional High School (CTP) of Nicoya warmed up the stage with a presentation of “The Traditions of my People,” a group of Costa Rican dances from...

One of my favorite year end activities is watching the local version of the bulls. Ticos have developed their own version of bull fighting where the bull is the aggressor and the fans or “improvised bullfighters” try to get as close as possible without injury. The best runs feature a few poor souls running for their lives and possibly being tossed or trampled but hopefully with no serious inju...