The twentieth edition of the Guillermo Barreto Drum Festival in Memoriam of Cuba begins today with music groups, as well as national and foreign percussionists in different parts of this capital.

The vice president of the Cuban cultural promotion company Artex, Tania Cardó, reported that this Thursday the international Timbal and Congas competition will be held at the El Sauce cultural center, in the Miramar neighborhood.

Since last Tuesday, the festival began to warm up Havana with international competitions of casino, conga, timba and rumba dances, as well as professional percussion and drummers.

The latter takes place in the Salón Rosado de la Tropical, where the Cuban musician Alain Pérez and the African group The Drumming Wonder of Burundi will participate.

In addition to these stages, other venues for the event are the Salón Rosado de la Tropical, the BuleBar 66 cultural center, as well as the open-air plaza of La Piragua, on the Malecón, reported the Festival’s president, Cuban musician Gerardo Piloto.

Another of the initiatives is the Rumba through the neighborhoods project, which will be joined by the Cuban groups Obini Batá, and Chispa and The Accomplices, which will perform in the municipalities of Regla and Habana del Este tomorrow and the day after, according to the organizers of the event. Dedicated to the Cuban musician Lázaro Ross, the Drum Festival will also pay homage to the artist José Luis Quintana, known as Changuito, with a concert that will be joined by prominent Cuban percussionists Enrique Plá, Samuel Formell, Ruly Herrera, Oliver Valdés, as well as Alexander Abreu and his group Habana D’Primera.