(Supporting stickers by Clandestina)

It’s the end another week in Cuba, and we’d like to give a round of applause to Havana World Music for pulling off these 3 days of global music. Just like the band origins, each visitor represented a spectrum of countries ranging from local Cuban flavor to Europeans, to Americans, to Africans, and beyond. Closing night was the climax, a performance by The Orishas, hometown boys gone big.

Very early in the night, lines of fans wrapped around the entire Almendares Park. The show took place under the bridge of the sacred Almendares river The band took their time on stage, churning out hits from each album and stage of their career. It has been 18 years, so why not stretch out this glorious moment? They even invited a few guest artists on stage. Singer Yotuel also took a few moments during the night to just talk to the audience, and on multiple occasions, really opened his heart about how much it meant to be Cuban, and perform in the motherland.

The New Cuba wants to thank all the organizers who I can personally declare are some of the hardest working showpeople in business. Seeing these last few months of their pre-production sweat and passion has truly filled me with optimism for the near future.

Here’s a few pics I snapped of the evening. It’s just a drop of water compared to the oceans of people who attended. Hopefully, it’s enough of a taste to bring you back next year as the HWM festival spreads its wings into a power-player for local culture.

(All Photos by Jauretsi)