Human Powered Festival, Santiago, Chile

I wondered if the advertisement for a “Human Powered Festival” was a misprint or a weird Spanish to English translation. It wasn’t.

We were in Santiago, Chile on our four month South American Adventure and decided to check out what this festival was all about. Chris was the one that found out about it. He is good at reading flyers. I am the better one at picking up a bunch of flyers and carrying them around as extra weight. That’s why we make a good team – so together we walked off to the Human Powered Festival.

And the first thing we saw was a bunch of kids being strapped on top of toilets.

Yep – a bunch of toilets made up the ferris wheel.

I don’t know how neither of us got a photo, but to the right, someone used a hand crank to move that belt and the ferris wheel went round. The whole idea behind the Human Powered Festival was all these carnival rides were powered by muscle. We had never seen a festival like this.

Next, the man on the left rang the bell and then…

…the girl on the bike started peddling and the merry go round went round.

This was one of the coolest merry go rounds we have ever seen.

Who wouldn’t want to ride in this airplane?!

This alligator was made out of a euphonium, tuba or something like that.

How neat is that?

It was one sweet merry go round.

This was probably the least popular attraction. The parents loved this ride, but the kids, once they figured out their role was to fan mom and dad, were not so keen. Then none of the kids that saw this wanted to go on this ride, so there would be a lull until enough new kids would get curious and form a line.

If we learned one thing about our time in South America, is when they have a festival, they go all out. All around the area streets were blocked off and parades were happening, food stalls were set up and people were meandering all over the place.

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Below are a handful of video selections from the day that I hope you can feel a little of that South American vibe. I can’t imagine anyone not being able not to tap their foot to these videos.

~I hope you enjoy~

These guys are so fast. Watch this twirling turquoise vests to the very end and take note of their feet.

Make you sure you watch the little boy wearing the red shirt dancing around trying to copy these guys.

This video shows a good mix of just the constant activity going on and juggling.

Feels like you are walking down the parade with them.

Ok, this longer, but if you were ever in band and/or drum cadence, I think you will love this. I just love watching this video, I don’t know if it’s because I was there in person, but I hope you enjoy this slightly longer video.

If this post resonates with you, South America will forever touch you. I was constantly moved by the artistic vibe I got from the people and culture. Shoes might be duct taped and shirts might have some holes in them, but people value spending time together, creating and celebrating. To me the most remarkable thing about attending celebrations like this was how little anyone cared. No one cared if we were white, dark, carrying a small camera, carrying a nice camera, looked like a tourist or not. No one cared if you had a kid hanging off your back or wearing a tank top with one shoe.

In South America, if you want to groove, you just groove.