The 35th Cervantino International Festival (FIC) opened on Wednesday in the central Mexican city of Guanajuato, with a public ceremony in the city's famous Parque de las Ranas.
At the ceremony where the Mexican and Chinese national flags were raised, Guanajuato mayor Eduardo Romero Hicks, FIC director Mini Caire and Yan Wenqing, vice-president of China Arts and Entertainment Group, jointly lit the Cervantino flame, which will burn for the duration of the 18-day festival.
"This is a great opportunity to get to know Chinese culture and traditions. China's millennia-old culture creates a great deal of curiosity in Mexico," Caire said.
The festival's live performances begin on Wednesday evening with a show by the Song and Dance Ensemble from the Chinese city of Jilin.
Caire said the festival, which has attracted more than 2,000 performers from 21 nations, is estimated to bring in four million U.S. dollars in income and raise the city's hotel occupancy to 60 percent.
After the opening ceremony, there was a show of rebozos, traditional long shawls worn by Mexican women who also use them to carry goods or even children.
An exhibition also opened on Wednesday with watercolors painted by Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist who was born in Guanajuato in 1886, on display. The exhibition is in the house where he grew up and which has been a museum since 1975.
The Cervantino International Festival is an annual event that gathers musicians, artists, and performers from all over the world. Each year, the festival features one of Mexico's states as well as one or two foreign countries.
Source: Xinhua
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