Mexico will be the guest of honor at the fifth cultural festival of the French city of Lille in 2019 , called "El Dorado,” which will feature Mexico-themed parades, exhibitions, concerts and workshops of popular art, among other activities .
The event program, which will be held between April 27 and December 1, 2019 in Lille, northern France , a city that was named "European capital of culture" in 2004, was presented to the press on Tuesday , at the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Paris .
The conference was attended by the ambassador of Mexico in France, Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo , and the mayor of the city of Lille, Martine Aubry .
The Mexican embassy in France said in a statement that the country will be very present at the "Lille 3000 El Dorado Festival," especially through its popular art and its participation in the event, adding that in doing so, "Mexico promotes the different expressions of Mexican art and deepens its cultural ties with France."
The festival will be inaugurated on April 27 with a "Mexican stop," which consists of a parade with 12 monumental sculptures of alebrijes, paper decorations, and masks, as well as giant catrinas .
Mexico will also show fighter shows, gastronomic tastings, and liven up the festival with traditional music and orchestras from Lille.
Through their Twitter account, Lille 3000 published an interview with Mexican artist Miguel Bolívar, who will be participating at the festival: "Read the interview of Miguel Bolívar, a Mexican artisan who shares his techniques for making alebrijes in the latest issue of Educactu, a supplement from Lillemag."
"Mexico has always fascinated us, inspiring many French writers and painters," the artistic advisor of the cultural event, Didier Fusiller, told reporters
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The program also includes children's workshops, said the organizers of the Festival.
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