Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027: Dates, Parades, Tickets and Travel Tips

Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027 is expected to run from Saturday 2 January to Thursday 7 January 2027 in San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, with the Desfile Magno on Wednesday 6 January 2027 ². Corpocarnaval, the organiser, describes the festival as a six-day celebration held from 2 to 7 January ². The calendar does not follow the moon or Easter, so only the weekdays change from one year to the next.

The 2027 programme with exact hours had not been published by mid-October 2026; the official site was still showing the 2025–2026 programme ¹. The 2027 edition is the centenary: its queen was presented as the Queen of the Centenary, and the official song contest gave extra points to entries about "Pasto 100 años de Carnaval" ^{6 7}.

The structure of the season is stable, and it starts before New Year:

• 28 December: pre-carnival opens on the old Carnival of Water day ⁴

• 31 December: Old Year's parade of satirical effigies, burned at midnight ⁴

• 2 January: Carnavalito, the children's parade ³

• 3 January: Canto a la Tierra, the parade of choreographic collectives ³

• 4 January: arrival of the Familia Castañeda ³

• 5 January: Día de Negros, the face-painting game ³

• 6 January: Día de Blancos and the Desfile Magno ³

• 7 January: Festival del Cuy y Cultura Campesina in rural corregimientos ⁵

The previous edition followed exactly this order: pre-carnival from 28 December 2025 and carnival days from 2 to 7 January 2026 ⁵. In 2026 the Desfile Magno put more than 8,500 artists on the Senda del Carnaval on 6 January ⁵. In 2025 the pre-carnival also included a 10 km race from Plaza del Carnaval and the Arcoíris en el Asfalto chalk-art day on calle San Andresito ⁹.

Tip: Plan to be in Pasto from 3 January 2027 at the latest. That gives you the Castañeda parade, both play days and the Desfile Magno without a rushed arrival.

You do not need a ticket to watch any parade in Pasto. The parades along the Senda del Carnaval and the concerts in the public squares are free ¹². What costs money is a seat: Corpocarnaval installs official palcos, grandstands at several points along the route, and sells those seats from its offices in Pasto ¹².

Official palco prices in 2024 were ¹²:

• 2 January, Carnavalito: 25,000 COP ¹²

• 3 January, Canto a la Tierra: 80,000 COP ¹²

• 4 January, Familia Castañeda: 40,000 COP ¹²

• 6 January, Desfile Magno: 180,000 COP ¹²

No palco price is listed for 5 January ¹², because Día de Negros is played across the city's comunas rather than on a single parade route ⁸.

Residents along the Senda also rent plastic chairs and stools in front of their houses for about 50,000 to 100,000 COP, a practice a 2024 guide describes as illegal but widespread ¹². These seats are closer to the action and to the foam. If you take one, agree the price before you sit down and keep your bag on your lap.

A palco matters most on 6 January. The Desfile Magno began at 8:00 in 2025 and carried 30 comparsas, 20 large A floats and 6 smaller B floats ⁸. That is a long morning to stand. A numbered seat lets you arrive later, leave for food and come back.

For Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027 in Pasto, Corpocarnaval had not published palco prices by mid-October 2026, so buy only from its offices or official channels once sales open ¹.

Tip: A palco is not a talc-free zone. Foam and talc reach the stands too, so bring the same poncho and goggles you would wear on the street ¹².

Antonio Nariño Airport, which serves Pasto, sits in the town of Chachagüí, about 35 km north of the city ¹⁴. Its 2,312 m runway lies on a tabletop plateau that pilots call an "aircraft carrier", and crosswinds can make it unusable ¹⁴. Direct domestic flights connect it with Bogotá, Cali and Medellín ¹⁴; the flight from Bogotá takes about 1 hour 45 minutes ¹⁷.

From the airport, the budget route is a buseta (minibus) down to Pasto's bus terminal, then a taxi to the historic centre ¹². Pasto's intercity terminal handles about two million passengers a year and is served by the country's main bus companies ¹⁵.

Other ways into Pasto:

• From Cali: about 10 hours by bus via Popayán, for about 85,000 COP in 2026 ¹²

• From Ipiales: about 2 hours by bus, about 20,000 COP in 2026, with frequent departures ¹²

• From Ecuador: bus from Tulcán to the border, cross immigration, then continue to Ipiales and on to Pasto ¹²

• From Bogotá by road: about 20 hours by bus ¹⁷

The Popayán to Pasto stretch of road is often under construction or blocked ¹². Leave a buffer day if you travel overland from Cali.

Pasto itself sits at 1.20778°N, 77.27722°W, at an altitude of 2,527 m ¹⁵. Once you are in the centre, the Senda del Carnaval, Plaza de Nariño and Plaza del Carnaval are within walking distance, and walking is faster than any car on parade mornings.

For Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027, flying into Chachagüí on 5 January 2027 is risky: one crosswind closure and you miss Día de Negros ¹⁴.

Tip: Land in Pasto at least one full day before the parade you care about most. If the airport closes, Cali and its overland route are your fallback.

The carnival programme builds over six days, from a children's parade on 2 January to the Desfile Magno on 6 January and a rural food festival on 7 January ^{2 5}. In 2025 the days ran like this ⁸:

• 2 January: an offering to the Virgen de las Mercedes at Templo de La Merced at 7:00, then the Carnavalito on the Senda at 9:00 ⁸

• 3 January: Canto a la Tierra at 10:00, with collectives dancing in tribute to the Andean past ⁸

• 4 January: the Familia Castañeda parade at 10:00, finishing on Avenida Alfonso Zambrano ⁸

• 5 January: Día de Negros across the comunas from 14:00 ⁸

• 6 January: Desfile Magno at 8:00, rumba at Plaza de Nariño and Plaza del Carnaval from 16:00 ⁸

Each day has its own story. The Carnavalito began in Barrio Bolívar in 1966 ¹³. The Castañedas are an invented settler family from Putumayo, first welcomed with a cavalcade on 4 January 1929 ¹³; today the parade mixes rural characters, satire and local memory ³.

Día de Negros traces back to 1607, when a slave rebellion led the Spanish Crown to grant 5 January as a rest day for Black residents of the Popayán region ¹³. In Pasto, people now ask "una pintica, por favor" before painting each other's faces with black cosmetic ⁵. Painted faces erase social differences for the day ².

Día de Blancos follows with talc, a game reported since 1912 ¹³. The Desfile Magno brings individual costumes, comparsas, murgas and floats that take about four months to build in papier-mâché, fibreglass and polymer ¹³. In 2026 the winning float, "Indomable | Mujer Guerrera", scored 97.50 points and earned 45,000,000 COP; judges weigh sculpture at 30 points and colour at 20 ¹¹.

On 7 January the party moves to the corregimientos for cuy, guinea pig seasoned with salt, garlic and cumin and roasted for about an hour ^{18 5}.

Tip: Try frito pastuso, pork fried in its own fat, and empanadas de añejo made from fermented corn at street stalls between parades ¹⁸.

Pasto is cold, damp and high in early January. The city sits at 2,527 m below the Galeras volcano, which rises to 4,276 m ¹⁵. At the Obonuco station, January averages a high of 17.1°C, a low of 9.3°C, 77.2 mm of rain over 12.3 rainy days, 82% humidity and just 3.6 hours of sunshine a day ¹⁵.

That means parade mornings start chilly, and showers can arrive at any point. Talc sticks to wet clothes and foam does not dry fast, so dressing for weather and play at once is the real skill.

Rough crowd levels (1 is quiet, 5 is packed), judged from the programme:

• 28 to 31 December: 2, mostly residents and pre-carnival events ⁴

• 2 to 4 January: 3 to 4, busiest along the Senda during the morning parades ³

• 5 January: 4, spread across the comunas rather than one route ⁸

• 6 January: 5, the Desfile Magno and the white talc game ³

What to pack for Pasto in January:

• Old clothes and shoes you do not mind ruining ¹²

• A cotton or plastic poncho, sold on stalls across the city ¹²

• Ski goggles, also sold on street corners, to protect your eyes ¹²

• A scarf or hooded jacket for neck and hair ¹²

• A warm layer and rain jacket for the 9.3°C January low ¹⁵

• Sealed talc only: in 2026 the mayor's Decreto 0272 capped sales at 500 g per unit and banned sacks, flour, cement and gypsum ¹⁰

The talc rule exists because a citizen collective argued that loose talc sold in Pasto contained crystalline silica, a carcinogen ¹⁰.

For the Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027 in Pasto, be on the Senda early on 6 January 2027; the Desfile Magno began at 8:00 in 2025 ⁸.

Tip: Carry your phone and cash in a zip-lock bag under the poncho. Foam and talc get into every pocket.

The side of the Senda del Carnaval your hotel sits on matters more than its star rating. The route is closed on both sides during parades, so pick a viewing spot on the same side as your room or you may be cut off for hours ¹².

The historic centre is the best base. You can walk to Plaza de Nariño and Plaza del Carnaval, where the evening rumbas take place ⁸, and taxi fares inside the centre are fixed and low ¹². Landmarks such as the Church of San Juan Bautista and the Church of Our Lady of Mercy help you find your way back when every street looks white ¹⁵.

How the main options compare:

• Historic centre near Plaza de Nariño: walkable to the Senda and plazas ¹²

• Near the bus terminal: practical if you arrive late or leave early by road ¹⁵

• Obonuco and the rural corregimientos: quieter, at the foot of Galeras, and close to the 7 January cuy festival ^{6 5}

• Ipiales: about 2 hours by bus ¹²; only worth it if you combine Las Lajas and the carnival

Book early. Central hotels can fill months ahead and flight prices rise as the carnival nears ¹². Many families in Pasto turn their homes into workshops for floats, costumes and masks before the carnival ², and the neighbourhoods near the route stay loud late into the night.

For Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027 in Pasto, book a central room as soon as your dates are fixed, ideally covering 3 to 7 January 2027 ¹².

Tip: Ask your host which side of the Senda the building is on and where the nearest palco stands. Then choose your seat to match.

Your phone will work in Pasto, but the Desfile Magno puts tens of thousands of people along one route at once, and in 2026 more than 8,500 artists paraded on the day ⁵. Mobile networks slow down where everyone is filming the same float. Public Wi-Fi is not a plan on the Senda.

What you will use data for:

• The Senda map: checking each parade's start and finish points ³

• Meeting friends: live location when the route closes both kerbs ¹²

• Translation: Spanish notices on talc rules and road closures ¹⁰

• Rides: messaging a driver your address after the plaza rumbas ⁸

• Video: sending floats and murgas home in real time

A local SIM or a Colombia eSIM installed before you fly means you land at Chachagüí already online. Save 123 too: it is Colombia's single emergency number for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone ²⁰.

Talc is the other hazard. Fine powder gets into charging ports and speaker grilles, and foam can soak a phone in your hand. People here protect cameras from flour and foam ¹²; a phone needs the same care.

For the Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027 Desfile Magno in Pasto on 6 January 2027, keep the phone in a sealed bag and take it out only to film.

Tip: Upload videos from your hotel after the parade, not from the Senda. You save battery and spare the crowded network.

The two classic additions to a Pasto carnival trip are Laguna de la Cocha to the east and the Las Lajas Sanctuary to the south. Both work best on 8 January or later, when the city goes back to work.

Laguna de la Cocha: El Encano dock is about 40 minutes by road from Pasto ¹⁷. The lake covers 41.5 km², and a motorboat reaches Isla La Corota, a 12-hectare sanctuary with a 500 m trail, in about 10 minutes ¹⁷. Rainbow trout is the dish to order at the dock ¹⁷. In 2025 a Festival de la Trucha followed the carnival on 12 January at El Encano ⁸.

Las Lajas Sanctuary: a neo-gothic church built between 1916 and 1949, rising 100 m from the bottom of the Guáitara River canyon in Ipiales ¹⁶. It is less than 11 km from the Ecuadorian border ¹⁶, and buses from Pasto to Ipiales take about 2 hours ¹².

What to do before leaving Pasto:

• Buy Barniz de Pasto: wooden objects decorated with mopa-mopa resin, a craft UNESCO placed on its Urgent Safeguarding List in 2020 ¹⁹

• Look up at Galeras: the volcano rises to 4,276 m above the city, clearest early in the morning ¹⁵

• Try trout: it is grilled, fried, al ajillo or smoked ¹⁸

For anyone attending Carnaval de Negros y Blancos 2027 in Pasto, 8 January 2027 is the natural day for La Cocha and 9 January 2027 for Las Lajas on the way to Ecuador.

Tip: La Cocha is colder than Pasto, with temperatures between about 3 and 15°C ¹⁷. Wear the carnival poncho again, washed.