Updated: The concert begins at 8 p.m., not 8:30; and discounts with ID are available for students and seniors at the box office.

Inti-Illimani, the famed instrumental and vocal Latin American folk music ensemble from Chile, will fill Costa Rica’s National theater with their rich and colorful Latin American rhythms and distinctive fusion of modern world music Friday, May 12 at 8 p.m.

As part of their 50th anniversary tour, the concert is dedicated to supporting the work of Fundación Cuencas de Limón (FCL), also know as the Limón Watershed Foundation.

Accompanying the South American legendary group will be Costa Rica’s upbeat, inspiring Cantoamérica which last year won the highest musical recognition in the Tropical category by the Costa Rican Singer-Songwriter Association (ACAM).

Tickets for the Inti-Illimani show range from c15,000 to c40,000 and are available at the National Theater box office, which also accepts phone and Internet reservations. Discounts are available for students and seniors with a valid ID at the box office.

Inti-Illimani was formed in 1967 by a group of university students and it acquired widespread popularity in Chile for their song Venceremos (We shall win!) which became the anthem of the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende, according to Wikipedia.

They were on tour in Europe at the time of the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973 which installed Augusto Pinochet in power, and stayed there in exile until 1988. Their name means ‘Sun of the Illimani’; in Aymara Illimani is the name of a mountain in the Bolivian Andes.

The Limón Watershed Foundation was established in Costa Rica in 1996 as a nonprofit NGO, with the mission of protecting the watersheds of the Banano and Bananito Rivers in the Province of Limón in eastern Costa Rica. Both rivers are the primary source of water for Puerto Limón, Costa Rica’s third largest city, according to the group’s website.

This small NGO with a very limited operating budget and staff working on a voluntary basis, has earned recognition from The Nature Conservancy and RARE, two major, international organizations which have co-financed major projects carried out by FCL.

The Foundation has contributed to reworking parts of Costa Rican environmental legislation in favor of improved conservation measures and enforcement.