38th National Band Contest (Paipa Boyacá)

Paipa is a municipality located in the department of Boyacá, where 43 national bands competitions have been held, which have been of national cultural interest since 2004. The organization of the event is carried out by corpbandas that seeks to strengthen the Bands of Music with technical criteria to promote "Music for the Peace of Colombia". The contest has categories for child, youth, basic, party, special and professional/university for the enjoyment of the community. At present, international guests also participate, in 2016 there were bands from Venezuela and Panama.

It is interesting to see how this type of events grow for the benefit of the country. I remember that when I was a member of the band "Región Calima", representing the Valle del Cauca in the youth category, I experienced one of the best experiences of my life. In 2012 when I participated, the tribute to maestro Pacho Galán and the 35 best groups of the country by region was being made, we had to interpret one of his works, besides participating in parades, open-air dances, stage presentations and private with the jury.

The band was made up of 43 musicians from the municipalities of Restrepo and Darién, at that time I played clarinet and everyone was afraid, because although we had prepared a lot for the contest, the level of the bands that are presented in Paipa is very high. The lodging was in a Hotel in another municipality and the feeding was in Paipa, in the house of Mrs. Patricia, reason why it was necessary to move us in bus of a municipality to another one. The food was very rich and the people very friendly, in the atmosphere of the whole place felt the musical party and among the members of the bands the atmosphere was warm, although competitiveness was not left aside. We kept with sack almost all the time and we only took them off for presentations becasuse Paipa is a municipality with cold weather.

Representative band of the Valle del Cauca

Parade with typical costumes 

San Miguel Arcángel church

The private presentation was made in San Miguel Arcángel church, a monument to culture and tradition. The presentations on the platforms that are shown in the images as well as the parade through the streets of the municipality. One of the most beautiful experiences I've had is to watch a fireworks show in Sochagota Lake during one of the nightly touches, that moment when the light is reflected in the water is perfect and wonderful was to enjoy this experience with music from background and with all the members of the bands and the community reunited with a same feeling, love for the art, the pentagram and the music.

Sochagota Lake

Presentation in Sochagota Lake

Dear readers, I am very sorry, but the content of the next entries will be short, because I have a bad memory and little photographic material, but remember that Benjamin Franklin said: "Human happiness is not usually achieved with great strokes of luck, which can happen a few times, but with small things that happen every day"