What's on in Villa de Leyva, Colombia through the year

Busy — Year-end holidays in Colombia, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in February.

Peak crowds — Festival de Astronomia, Semana Santa

• Festival

  Festival de Astronomia

  20–22 MarDark-sky seasonCrowded

  Telescopes fill the enormous cobbled plaza for a long weekend in March, with talks, a guest country and a town that turns its lights down for it. The nights up here are genuinely dark. Source ↗

• Holiday

  Semana Santa

  29 Mar – 5 AprEaster & Holy WeekCrowdedBook early

  Processions round the plaza on the Thursday and Friday, and every hotel in a colonial town of five thousand taken by Bogota. The road in from Tunja crawls on the Wednesday. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Semana Santa, Semana Santa recess in Colombia

• Season

  First rainy season

  1 Apr – 31 May · usuallyMonsoon

  The dry valley greens up for a few weeks and the afternoon storms come over the ridge; it is the quietest stretch of the year and the guest houses discount for it.

Still on: Semana Santa (29 Mar – 5 Apr)

Busy — Festival Nacional de Bandas

• Festival

  Festival Nacional de Bandas

  10–25 May · usuallyMusic festivalCrowdedBook early

  Colombia's national symphonic and youth wind-band competition takes over the main square for a weekend in mid-May, with brass and percussion bands from across the country and rooms booked out by visiting families. Source ↗

Still on: First rainy season (1 Apr – 31 May (usually))

Peak crowds — Founding anniversary, Villa de Leyva Jazz Festival

• Festival

  Founding anniversary

  8–14 Jun · usuallyMusic festivalCrowded

  The town marks its founding on 12 June 1572, and the anniversary programme includes a national band music festival, so expect concerts and crowds in the centre. Source ↗

• Festival

  Villa de Leyva Jazz Festival

  24–29 JunMusic festivalCrowdedBook early

  Live jazz fills Plaza Mayor and the town's hotels, bars and restaurants for nearly a week, a fixture on Colombia's festival calendar since 2011 that turns the historic centre into a venue in its own right. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Fiestas de la Virgen del Carmen, Mid-year recess in Colombia

• Festival

  Fiestas de la Virgen del Carmen

  12–17 Jul · usuallyReligious feastCrowded

  The patron of drivers gets processions, masses, fireworks and a parade of decorated trucks and floats with a blessing of vehicles. A local fair more than a tourist event, with Bogota weekenders on top. Source ↗

Busy — Festival del Viento y las Cometas

• Festival

  Festival del Viento y las Cometas

  14–17 AugMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  The plaza has been given over to kites in the middle of August since the 1970s, because that is when the wind on this plateau is reliable. Everything in town is booked out for the weekend. Source ↗

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Festival

  Festival Villa del Cine

  20–30 Sep · usuallyFilm festival

  A small film festival in late September, running since 2015, with screenings and guests from a different invited country each year. Busier weekends than usual for the time of year. Source ↗

Busy — October recess week in Colombia

• Season

  Second rainy season

  1 Oct – 30 Nov · usuallyMonsoon

  The second and wetter of the two rainy spells, with cloud sitting on the hills and the tracks out to the fossil museums turning to mud. Cold at night at 2,100 metres.

Busy — Year-end holidays in Colombia

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Second rainy season (1 Oct – 30 Nov (usually))

Peak crowds — Festival de Luces, Year-end holidays in Colombia

• Festival

  Festival de Luces

  5–7 DecChristmas & New YearCrowdedBook early

  Fireworks and lit displays over the plaza for three nights at the start of December, the traditional opening of Christmas in Boyaca. The town closes the centre to cars and fills anyway. Source ↗