Montevideo Carnival

It takes mucho more than two words to speak about the Uruguayan murga. Various related characters who permit the formation of this great murga are included within this category.

The murga is a group made up by an important number of members (men, women and children) who celebrate Carnival by parading or by staying at a fixed place. They dance, they play instruments and they sing their songs. This is the reason why the Uruguayan murga has become famous all round the world.

Emblematic groups such as Araca La Cana o Falta and Restó have been acknowledged worldwide by other peoples who celebrate Carnival too. They have even sold out shows at theaters and stages to show this Uruguayan passion, kept intact through new groups that continue playing the same rhythms with new lyrics and showing the real social recovery and popular protests of the past.

Tablado is a word reminiscent of the stages where the murgas come out to show everything they have prepared during the year. On top of these improvised stages, they play the show they have rehearsed for the Carnival.

The vocal and dancing groups may be appreciated at the traditional clubs of Montevideo and its surroundings, just like in other private mix and mobile stages settled everywhere.

Wearing glamorous costumes and excessive make-up, the Uruguayan murga is a world school of Carnival. No wonder thousands of visitors mark February in their diaries to come along and see this particular Uruguayan feeling.

And there go the murgueros, the stars of the summer nights who, in addition to dancing and singing, usually revise the national and international agenda or else they parody and laugh at adversity. They try to change it, of course.