This year’s Ministry of Tourism’s Merengue Festival will be a simultaneous celebration of the Caribbean beat in Santo Domingo and San Juan, Puerto Rico. This year (the 41st edition), it is to be known as the Festival Brugal de Merengue 2008. A delegation of the Santo Domingo Hotels Association traveled to Puerto Rico to promote the event. Cosette Garcia, director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Office, spoke at the event to invite Puerto Ricans to come dance to the tune of leading Dominican bands at the Avenida del Puerto from 24 to 27 July. Patricia Alvarez of the Santo Domingo Hotels Association said that the leading hotels would be offering free shuttle transportation for their guests. PAWA, the new Dominican airline that flies to Aguadilla in Puerto Rico from Santo Domingo, was also part of the delegation to announce the Merengue Festival.
The Festival opens on Thursday 24 July with a special tribute to Bonny Cepeda, with rhthyms from the 1980s and a performance by India Canela. On the 25th, onstage at the Avenida del Puerto, Fernando Villalona, Kilo el Presidente and Banda Gorda will perform. On the stage in Santo Domingo East, Las Chican and Julian Oro Duro are programmed. On Saturday, 26 July, Pochy Familia and his Coco Band, Querubanda and Eddy Herrera will take the stage. And on Sunday, 27 July, there will be two simultaneous concerts, one from the Avenida del Puerto with Sergio Vargas, Geovanny Polanco and El Torito Hector Acosta, and another with Fefita la Grande and El Jeffrey. Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, Los Hermanos Rosario, Milly Quezada, El Prodigio, Joseph Fonseca, Grupo Mania, Limite 21, Bonny Cepeda, Los Sabrosos del Merengue and Grupo Mayombe will perform at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan. This year, in addition to the merengue music, the Ministry of Tourism has also coordinated large displays of arts and crafts for sale. Dominican cuisine will also be available.
For more information in Puerto Rico, contact the Tourism Office at 890 Ashford Avenue, Local C-3, Condado, San Juan, call 787 722-0881 or e-mail opt_pr@yahoo.com