Inti Raymi

What: The Fes­ti­val of the Sun, Cusco’s Inti Ray­mi both cel­e­brates and re-enacts the Inca Empire’s win­ter sol­stice fes­ti­val and the tra­di­tion­al Inca New Year– with pro­ces­sions, dances, cer­e­mo­ni­al read­ings, music, parade’s, rit­u­als and even a sac­ri­fice (super­fi­cial in nature) tak­ing place to hon­our the most sacred god in Inca cul­ture – Inti — the god of the Sun.

While the re-dis­cov­ery of Machu Pichu has shone a renewed light on to both Cus­co and the Cul­ture of Inca’s, Inti Ray­mi retains all of its tra­di­tion­al ele­ments (minus the mum­mi­fi­ca­tion and large scale sac­ri­fices) and the main day of the fes­ti­val begins with a cer­e­mo­ny at Cusco’s tem­ple of the sun attend­ed by mem­bers of the remain­ing four provinces of the Inca Empire, before a parade and series of per­for­mances and rit­u­als – presided over by the elect­ed  sun king and sun queen for the fes­ti­val – take place in cusco’s main square, before the pro­ces­sion moves to one of the last Inca sites still stand­ing in cus­co for a fur­ther parade, rit­u­al and cer­e­monies – designed to pay homage to the sun and guar­an­tee a good har­vest in the months to come.

As dusk falls, the cer­e­mo­ny is offi­cial­ly bought to an end by a tra­di­tion­al Inca cer­e­mo­ny – which includes the blow­ing of wood pipes and the bang­ing of drums and the light­ing of bon­fires, before peo­ple head back to the streets of Cus­co to cel­e­brate Inti Ray­mi into the night.

When: The Inti Ray­mi takes place over nine days in June, begin­ning on the 16^th and fin­ish­ing with the main event and ‘real fes­ti­val’ of Inti Ray­mi on the 24^th – with the first sev­er­al days ded­i­cat­ed to more mod­ern cel­e­bra­tions such as par­ties, and the final day fea­tur­ing the mod­ern day re-enact­ment of the orig­i­nal fes­ti­val, with the parade, cer­e­monies and rit­u­als.

Where: The best (and eas­i­est) place to expe­ri­ence Inti Ray­mi is in the town of Cus­co, Peru where for the main days of the fes­ti­val the down­town area be closed to traf­fic to accom­mo­date the per­form­ers and artists who will gath­er from the four for­mer ‘provinces’ of the Inca Empire to cel­e­brate Inti Ray­mi.

In terms of wit­ness­ing the fes­ti­val as a tourist, there are three main areas with­ing Cus­co where Inti Ray­mi is pre­dom­i­nant­ly cel­e­brat­ed; Qurikan­cha, Plaza de Armas and Sac­say­huamán.

The fes­ti­val begins in Qurikan­cha on Cusco’s Aveni­da El Sol at the tem­ple of the Sun with the parade and a cer­e­mo­ny, where there are no offi­cial seat­ing arrange­ments but plen­ty of spots to stand.

 In Plaza de Armas, which is the main square of Cus­co, a num­ber of fes­tiv­i­ties and per­for­mances take place — how­ev­er the entire area will be cor­doned off, so the best and most prac­ti­cal view­ing spots are in the bal­conies and cafes sur­round­ing the square.

For the area of Sac­say­hua­man, where the main cer­e­mo­ny and parade takes place (and the rec­om­mend­ed place to be) there is the option to watch to gath­er in one of the local parks which over­look the area for a free view­ing of the cer­e­mo­ny or (and the rec­om­mend­ed option) secure a spot in the seat­ed stands that over­look the parade with the help of a tour or local guide.

Dura­tion: Offi­cial­ly Inti Ray­mi lasts for nine days, how­ev­er the first sev­er­al days are ded­i­cat­ed to more mod­ern ele­ments of cel­e­bra­tions, includ­ing par­ties, street food and night-time food and drink events.

For the day itself of Inti Ray­mi on the 24^th June, per­form­ers and artists and impor­tant­ly mem­bers of the four for­mer Inca provinces will gath­er first at Qurikan­cha at the “tem­ple of the sun” where a priest (known as the Sapa Inca) will per­form an ear­ly morn­ing rit­u­al and address the dawn of the sun – before fol­low­ing a pro­ces­sion through to the cen­tre of Cus­co and Plaza de Armas.

From here a num­ber of fes­tiv­i­ties, dances and per­for­mance will take place in the cen­tre of Cus­co and the Plaza de Armas – before the pro­ces­sion car­ries on to the area of Plaza Sac­say­hua­man, where the same Sapa Inca will give a speech to the watch­ing audi­ence (in the tra­di­tion­al Quechua lan­guage) and to the sun at exact­ly 1:30pm – before the main parade, cer­e­monies and a staged lla­ma sac­ri­fice take place, with a series of native and tra­di­tion­al inca dances then tak­ing place .

When dusk begins the Inti Ray­mi will wind down, with a series of drum per­for­mances and horn blow­ing sig­nalling the end of the fes­ti­val – and giv­ing peo­ple the chance to head back into the cen­tre of the Cus­co to cel­e­brate.

Tick­ets: To watch the Inti Ray­mi there are again three options, depend­ing on which part of the fes­ti­val you wish to watch and in which area.

The best area for view­ing and the one that lets you watch the most of the fes­tiv­i­ties is to secure seats in the grand­stand area of Sac­say­huamán – this is done through pur­chas­ing tick­ets, with the best option being to secure seats as part of a guid­ed pack­age and tour through a local Cus­co oper­a­tor.

For a more local expe­ri­ence and to enjoy Inti Ray­mi with the locals, there are two main parks that over­look the area of Sac­say­hua­man and offer free view­ing – how­ev­er the view here can be lim­it­ed and expect to have to arrive at 8am to secure a good spot and bring lots of sup­plies in advance.

To watch the begin­ning of the fes­ti­val at Qurikan­cha, there is not paid option or seat­ing – but plen­ty of stand­ing options with a good view, although you need to arrive in the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing. To watch the open­ing of the cer­e­mo­ny the best option is to head to Cusco’s Aveni­da El Sol and find a spot look­ing at the tem­ple of the sun, then wait for dawn to break for the cer­e­monies to begin.

For those wish­ing to watch the more tra­di­tion­al cer­e­monies in the plaza de Armas and enjoy seat­ing and drinks at the same time, the best option is to secure a table or spot on one of the bal­conies in the square in advance and enjoy the views from there, again using both a local guide or book­ing in per­son in advance are the best options.

Need to Know: As with the above, local in Cus­co will arrive in the very ear­ly hours for the free view­ing spots – so it’s advised to get there very ear­ly and book every­thing in advance – espe­cial­ly as this is also high sea­son for trips to Machu Pichu (which we’d rec­om­mend adding into your itin­er­ary as well.)

If attend­ing the fes­ti­val, be also warned that it can get very crowd­ed and unfor­tu­nate­ly is con­sid­ered a prime place and event for pick pock­ets – so have your wits about you and pro­tect your valu­ables.