Sinaloa Named Guest of Honor at International Cervantino Festival, #1 Cultural Festival in Latin America

Official presentation of the 40th edition of this year's Festival Cervantino held yesterday in Mexico City and Guanajuato

Over 500 artists will participate, including Banda El Recodo and Banda El Limon from Sinaloa

OSSLA will organize the festival's final concert under direction of Maestro Enrique Patron de Rueda

SINALOA, Mexico, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --For the first time in the history of Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), the state of Sinaloa will participate as guest of honor together with Austria, Poland and Switzerland at the Festival to be held in Guanajuato from 3-12 October. The official presentation of this year's 40th edition of the Festival took place Tuesday in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, and later that evening in Guanajuato.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120516/DC08951)

In his ceremonial speech, Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez Valdez noted that Festival will be a great opportunity to show the world the true face of Sinaloa, one of artistic and cultural supremacy, at the most well-regarded multi-disciplinary cultural festival in Latin America, and among the top five in the world. Guests will see and hear the best of Sinaloa, including Ines Arredondo, Gilberto Owen's poems, Jose Limon's dance, and the young and adult symphonies of Sinaloa.

Festival Internacional Cervantino, known as "El Cervantino," is a three-week festival in Guanajuato featuring 500 artists through a variety of art exhibitions, academic events, and many genres of dance and musical performances. Each year FIC invites one Mexican state whose thriving art and culture scene stands out country-wide.

"We are thrilled at Sinaloa's nomination as guest of honor at this year's Festival," said Oralia Rice, Sinaloa's Secretary of Tourism. "The honor further validates our state's thriving cultural offering within Mexico and beyond."

The Sinaloa Institute of Culture, ISIC, is working with the FIC to drive the festival's programming, featuring fifteen local dance, music and theatrical groups and companies, including Banda El Recodo, Banda El Limon, Sinaloa Symphony Orchestra of the Arts (OSSLA) and its director Gordon Campbell, Delphi, Sinaloa Folkloric Company, and more.

OSSLA will perform the closing concert of the Festival under the direction of Maestro Enrique Patron de Rueda

For more information about Festival Cervantino, visit http://www.festivalcervantino.gob.mx/

For more information about Festival Cervantino, or to arrange an interview with a Sinaloa spokesperson, please contact:
Kelsey Garvey
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Phone:[phone]
[e-mail]

SOURCE Government of Sinaloa