In Boquete, where there is such a disparity of wealth, you can feel a bit privileged by attending.
To help ameliorate that privilege guilt, part of the proceeds go to help a really excellent music program for kids. One of the days, the kids come and put on a show.
With or without, feeling privileged, I really enjoy myself there. I delight in dancing to live Blues music.
If you will be in the Chiriqui Province in late February, you should consider attending.
To find out more about the Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival, click here.
Their website is greatly improved. It has a lot of easily accessible information about the events and the line ups.
The Festival runs from Feb. 22nd - Feb. 25th, 2018
This year I will have to miss the first 2 days of it.
When I said yes to speak at Live & Invest Panama conference, I didn't realize it overlapped with the Boquete event.
But I can make it to both.
By the way, if you are still in the information gathering stage about Panama, you may want to check out the Live & Invest Panama (LIOS) conference.
I would never have thought of going to such an event, but now that I have attended one, I understand its value. I wrote about the 2018 LIOS Panama event (Feb 21 - 23rd) here.
Maybe I will see you at both events.
We have written about 2 of the Boquete music festivals we have attended.
You may enjoy checking them out as well.
Maybe because it was so very hot for the first couple of hours this year. But I think the bigger factor was the line up.
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Last year, on Sunday, there more blues performers and the performers were much higher energy. The crowd was higher energy. More people were wearing mardi-gras beads and crazy hats.
Of course, we were also missing Lil Ed and the Blue Imperials. Lil Ed brings his own very enthusiastic head-dress-wearing crowd. But there seemed to be more acts too.
(You can see photos of the 2015 Boquete Jazz & Blues festival here.)
Also missing was face painting and homemade gelato ice cream.
However, there was fabulous pizza baked in a portable wood-fired oven. The ice cream was good, but it wasn't as good as last year's. I loved this year's misters that lightly spayed water on you. They didn't have those last year, that I remember. Did I mention it was so very hot this year.
I enjoyed Tommy Castro very much. He is more R&B than Blues, but his is undoubtedly good. But Sunday's performers weren't the same level of energy and diversity of performers as last year.
Next year, I am will check out the line up more before shelling out the money. I go for the blues, not the jazz. So a good blues line up is critical for me.
Next year's festival will be from February 9 - 12, 2017.
So far the line up looks promising
According to the Boquete Jazz and Blues website, this is the line up.
Regular priced tickets go on sale on April 1, 2016.
I wish they would dedicate Sunday to Blues and Saturday to Jazz. I would sign up for next year right now, if I knew I could be listening to almost all Blues on the day I chose.
For a short time, 2017 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival tickets are for sale online at a discount. But again, only for a short window of time.
From February 28th 2016, at 6pm until March 2, 2016 at midnight!
The discounted price is $117, which gets you admission for both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, this early out you cannot buy a ticket for Sat or Sunday. You must buy it for both.
To give you an idea of the savings. One day tickets for 2016 were $74. I think the 2 day tickets were $169.
I am not sure if I will buy them early or not. I would have to commit to going for both days. Which could be fun, but I think I would have to leave my kids at home. I don't think they would go for it, at least not happily.
Did you go this year? What did you think?
Last year, my 8 year old was NOT thrilled. My 13 year old enjoyed it. My husband (the guy in the photo) liked it alot. And I loved it!
I had the best time dancing to amazing blues music.
Read about our experience at last year's Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival.
It is less than 2 weeks away!
Here's a video preview of this year's Festival
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While the event is fabulous, the festival's website (here) is terrible. It is hard to find information on it.
I couldn't find links to their most important pages, like the festival line up page and ticket purchase page. But I persevered and uncovered those links eventually. I'll put them below.
On Thursday, Feb 25th at noon, the Festival kicks off with a New Orleans style street parade followed by a free concert at the town's central park.
The Festival really kicks into gear on Saturday and Sunday.
Here is the schedule and line up. For updates to the line up and program, visit the Festival's program page here. Acts are added often, especially on the 1st 2 days of the Festival.
If you don't book ahead, it can be hard to get a hotel room in Boquete. Last year, we went on Sunday and then stayed at Ciudad de David hotel (in David) that night. (FYI - David is 30 minutes from Boquete. Puerto Armuelles, our town, is 1 hour and 15 minutes from David.)
We are going to do something similar this year. We could drive home directly from Boquete, but it makes it more of an event if we stay the night. Plus we usually have something we can accomplish in David.
Also, its a good idea to buy your tickets ahead of time. They sell out.
To find out more about your ticket options and costs go to their website here.
To buy them online use this link here.
As you can see, the tickets aren't cheap. For me its a bonus that kids 12 and under are free.
The festival has a facebook page where they share videos and updates.
While I didn't find the official website super helpful, this site has lots of great information about the festival and related info. You might want to check it out.
If you are coming from another country or from Panama City, there are some good things to know about.
Festival goers can get a 15% discount on Copa airlines flights to either Panama City or to David. It is only for economy seats from February 20th - March 4th, 2016. Book your flight on Copa here. Use coupon code C6705.
This is especially good because Copa is now offering connecting flights from Panama City’s Tocumen airport to David's Enrique Malek Airport. International travelers used to have take a taxi from Tocumen to the Albrook airport to catch a flight from Panama City to David.
This development is wonderful, and so much cheaper for travelers. Used to be, if you flew into Panama City and wanted to catch a flight to David, given schedules and time needed to get to Albrook, you often had to spend the night in Panama City. So you had to pay for more taxis and a hotel room, etc. Even if you could catch a flight that day, you had the cost of the taxi ride to Albrook.
With Copa's flight to David you get to skip the taxi ride to Albrook and you are much more likely to be able to catch a connecting flight that day. Plus Copa's flight to David is cheaper than Air Panama's out of Albrook airport.
We love Copa! It is our family's favorite airline.
Technically, you can only fly from Tocumen to David's airport if you are connecting from an international flight. However, I have taken that flight without having arrived on an international flight. But I wouldn't count on being able to do that.
Not flying internationally? Take Air Panama's flight out of Panama City's Albrook airport to David's Airport. There is no festival discount available for that flight.
You can also take a bus from Panama City with other festival goers.
The details are on the flyer for the Blues Bus to Boquete.
I smile just thinking about going. It is my birthday gift to myself.
Maybe I'll see you there. Please come and say "hi" if you see us.
We will be the only family with both a young Chinese daughter and a blondish teenage daughter.
I'll most likely be dancing in front of the stage. 🙂
January 14, 2016
Photo taken in Boquete, but not at the flower festival. We'll be going for the 1st time this yearThe festival is a huge celebration. Thousands of people flock to Boquete to see it.
So don't expect to get a last minute hotel reservations. People reserve rooms months in advance. However, you may be able to find a hotel room about 30 minutes away in David.
I must admit that so far the crowds have always kept us away from the festival.
But this year we are going! I am looking forward to it. I will write up our review of the festival once we go.
Now that our younger daughter, Blaise, is getting older, it is easier & more fun to go to these bigger event. (She is now 9 years old.) Blaise tolerated our participation in the Boquete Jazz festival last year. But I think she will enjoy this festival much more. Not only does she love flowers, but there are amusement rides and more vendors of both food and crafts.
BTW the Boquete Jazz festival is February 25-28 this year. To learn more about Jazz festival, read about our visit to the 2015 Boquete Jazz festival.
I hear that during the 10-day flower and coffee celebration, the Boquete fairgrounds overflows with lush fill landscaping and flower displays. People spruce up their own gardens as well. You also get many opportunities to enjoy a cup of local coffee. And there are many food stands, live music, amusement rides, handicrafts booths, and more.
If you miss the festival, you can still see the flower displays thru April. You can get in to see them for only $1.
The flower fair is located at Boquete's fairgrounds along the Caldera River, near downtown Boquete.
Also, in mid-April, Boquete holds the same kind of festival, but much smaller. This one is the Orchid Festival (Feria de Orquídeas). It last for 4 days. Many orchids bloom in April, so it is an ideal time for local orchid growers to show off their orchids.
We had a blues-filled Sunday in BoqueteIf you will be in Panama, I highly recommend you go to the Boquete Jazz & Blues festival next February.
The 2 main days are always Saturday and Sunday, but the festival actually goes on for days.
This year it started on Tuesday night with a party. Wednesday featured a street parade and jam sessions. On Thursday there was a free concert at Boquete's central park followed by a performance and then another jam session. Friday afternoon and evening was one big jam session. On Saturday, the venue moved to the amphitheater at Valle Escondido in Boquete. Music started at noon and went into the evening. Then everyone reconvened at a restaurant for a big jam session at 8pm. On Sunday, they did the whole thing over again, but with all new musical acts.
100% of the festival profit goes to buy musical instruments and improve musical education in Boquete area schools.
Tickets are a bit steep at $35. Kids 12 and younger are free, which means one of mine got to go for free.
The high cost of the tickets means that most of the folks there were expats.
Which is also why it felt abit like I was back in the States. Everyone was speaking English.
Even people who aren't native English speakers, were speaking English.
I met a people from Holland, Germany, Italy, and Panama. All spoke excellent English. Then, of course, there were the many Americans and Canadians who filled the stands. We were surrounded by English.
On our way out, I saw one of the children who had put on a performance. (As part of Sunday's performances, a group of school children also put on a few brief numbers. These kids are part of the music programs that the festival helps to fund. ) I told him, in Spanish, what a good job he did. Turns out he is an American. No need to speak Spanish. However, I would say the vast majority of the kids on stage were obviously Panamanian.
I hear that hotels in Boquete fill up quickly for the festival dates I didn't even try to get a hotel there. We stayed in David at the Hotel Ciudad de David. David is about 30 minutes from Boquete. We had errands to run in David anyway so it worked out for us. Plus, we have an 8 year old, so any late night jam sessions were not in the cards for us.
We normally stay at the Gran National in David, but decided to try something new, and we are glad we did.
We were impressed by the excellent customer service at Hotel Ciudad de David. We had a very pleasant time there.
We'll be going, or at least I will, every year from now on.
I ran into Joan, of the Careening Cay Resort & Cosmic Crab Cafe in Bocas del Toro, there too. We like staying at their hotel when we visit Bocas.
Like me, she has lived in Panama for years but it is the first time she's made it to the Festival. She and her husband are very busy running their a hotel/restaurant along with being parents of 2 young children. She was enjoying a well-deserved break, and without kids! Maybe next year...
August 29, 2012
Enjoy Free Music in Boquete Every Month Thru FebruaryOn the second Sunday of each month there will be a free concert in Boquete.
It is put on by the Boquete Jazz & Blues Foundation as a lead up to their annual festival in February 2013.
Click for our experience at the 2015 Boquete Jazz & Blues Festival
September 9th, October 14th, November 11th, December 9th, January 13th, and Feburary 10th.
Music will range from Salsa, Bossa Nova, Reggae, Merengue to Latin Jazz and Blues.
I will definately check it out if I am in Boquete.
My daughter and I need to go there to see someone about a dog.
Maybe I'll make that visit for September 9th.
The series actually started on August 12th.
Did anyone go?
How was it?
Please share your experience at one of the free concerts in the comments below.
Thanks.
