Buenos Aires World Tango Festival

Buenos Aires World Tango Festival

Buenos Aires World Tango Festival

Buenos Aires World Tango Festival

The largest tango dance tournament in the world, also known as El Mundial de Tango, started out in 1998 as a festival organised by the City of Buenos Aires. Its aim was to celebrate Argentina’s commitment to its cultural heritage and to emphasize the recognition of tango as a fundamental form of artistic expression. Over the years, the event grew and surpassed national borders, gradually becoming a meeting point for professional and amateur tango dancers from all over the world.

Since 2009, it also included the Tango Dance World Cup. The ever-increasing popularity of the event at international level led to the organisation of regional tango competitions in the run up to the Tango World Cup, taking place in Europe, United States and Asia. In 2020, the European competition for the BA Tango Festival & World Cup will be held in London, on June 6-8. The winning couples for each of the 2 categories – Salon Tango (Milonga) and Stage Tango (Special Performances) – will qualify for the semi-finals and travel to Buenos Aires in August.

The festival’s artistic director Gustavo Mozzi comments: “Tango is at a time of growth, evolution and expansion, and the more the festival is in tune with the booming, effervescent scene, the more it turns into a live, provocative space.”

The festival’s organizers call it “the world’s biggest tango extravaganza,” and although most of Buenos Aires has tango fever all month (and pretty much all year), the festival is officially 18 days long. It begins with La Festival, a 9-day celebration of tango shows, recitals, classes, milongas (dances) and film screenings at venues across the city. La Festival opens with a massive open-air milonga, where you’ll find tens of thousands of tangueros dancing along the streets.