Act for the Living Festival: Learn about nature with artists in Medellín

Environmentalists, artists, activists, and a total of 30 guests make up the Actuar por lo Vivo Festival, which runs in Medellín until May 10. The event will feature a diverse program with more than 50 activities, including expert discussions, business workshops, artistic experiences, school workshops, film screenings, exhibitions, and children's programs.

This is intended to exchange knowledge, learn collectively, and connect ideas across time and space, integrating all sectors of society around the ecological and cultural reflections of our time. The activities will take place in the Cloister, Theater, and Comfama Winery.

One of the thematic axes that will be covered at this event relates to dance, music, theater, film, and literature. Through culture, a call to action will be made that is sensitive , emotional, and connected to the environment and its care.

Some cultural spaces that will be featured at the festival are:

Time: 1:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Venue: Comfama Alfonso Restrepo Moreno Theatre Hall

Technology, art, education, and science create a virtual experience focused on environmental conservation in Colombia's páramos. This gamified tour not only raises awareness about protecting nature but also highlights the vital importance of the water cycle for everyone.

Location: Comfama Cinema - Comfama Cloister Chapel - Ticketing available at eticketablanca.

In the Serranía de La Macarena mountain range, in the northern Colombian Amazon, three residents lived in harmony with the mythical red river since the distant days when guerrillas ruled the area. Today, the area is facing new changes.

Location: Patio Claustro Comfama Theater

A sonic and physical encounter with one of the most powerful expressions of Afro-Caribbean tradition. Thirteen musicians on stage will lead a bullerengue dance, inviting the audience to join in an ancestral dance whose songs tell stories and recreate the everyday landscapes of territories like Urabá and Panama, where this genre has been a song of resistance, celebration, and living memory for generations.

Venue: Comfama Alfonso Restrepo Moreno Theater

Rivers, mountains, forests, and animals are part of an interconnected community. In this talk, we'll delve into cosmologies, arts, and knowledge that invite us to listen to the Earth and recognize its right to exist and regenerate.

Location: Patio Claustro Comfama Theater

An intimate encounter with words and emotion. Marcela Fernández invites us to a reading aloud about the fate of glaciers, love as a geological force, and the states of water as a metaphor for life.

Time: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm.

Venue: Comfama Alfonso Restrepo Moreno Theater - Ticketing available at La Tiquetera.

You'll navigate its rivers to experience the sounds of the region and experience the music of the South and the Pacific. You'll be accompanied by clouds that form flying rivers and are the foundation of the natural wealth of one of the world's most important regions.

Activity for children by the Matacandelas Theater and the La Pascasia Common and Current Corporation.

Time: 3:30 pm – 4:00 pm

Venue: Comfama Alfonso Restrepo Moreno Theatre Hall

A meaningful pause in the festival's journey to allow the music to permeate us. The Estudio Polifónico in Medellín presents a piano and vocal performance that invites contemplation and an encounter with beauty as a form of care. An intimate moment to breathe and feel.

Time: 5:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Jorge Cardona, a member of the Digital Sound Museum, talks with Alexis Play about the soundscapes that inspire his craft of composing, producing, and creating the beat chirimía.

Time: 9:00 pm– 10:30 pm

A concert in which the rhythms of Chocó and the South Pacific come alive in an explosive fusion of Afro-Latin rhythms, chirimía, and rap; a sonic journey that ranges from the romantic to the socially charged. Vibrant, authentic, and full of energy, Alexis Play's staging is a connecting experience.

“For four years, Actuar por lo Vivo and Comfama have developed a festival that seeks to listen to and connect conversations about the care of living things. We are inspired by nature itself, by the integration of knowledge, voices, and expressions—from art, activism, the business world, academia, and proposals emerging from the public. With this gathering, we demonstrate that it is possible to have difficult and constructive conversations, which are necessary to unite in common goals and to build more bridges between disciplines and sectors,” said Andrés Valencia, Head of Festivals at Comfama.

María Jimena Delgado Díaz