With the burial of “Joselito” on Tuesday, February 13, the 2024 Barranquilla Carnival came to an end, the celebration that left good dividends for the city, as reported in the last hours by Mayor Alejandro Char.
“The 2024 Carnival breaks records with talent, innovation, security, visitors, and sustainability! This year, Barranquilla set the bar high, with over 5.3 million spectators enjoying events with national and international artists and impeccable logistics. In addition to the largest participation and organization of the decade,” said the mayor.
He added that the festivities in the ‘Arenosa’ moved $850 billion COP in the city’s economy.
Alejandro Char, who highlighted the organization of the parades, recalled that this year “we doubled the investment made by the city” in the previous Carnival, with a contribution of more than $15 billion pesos to creators, operators, security, and sustainability.
“The 2024 Barranquilla Carnival incentivized the work of 55,000 direct jobs among artisans, dancers, costumers, trainers, musicians, producers, makeup artists, among others,” expressed Char.
Tourists
The mayor pointed out that “Barranquilla experienced the most visited Carnival in its entire history, welcoming 710,000 visitors from around the world.” Tourists arrived from various countries such as the United States, Spain, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Canada, Peru, and Japan. This figure broke the record for air and land visitors.
“For the first time, we surpassed 26,000 visitors by air, not counting the flights that arrived through Cartagena and Santa Marta. The Transport Terminal highlighted an unprecedented figure with the entry of more than 108,000 passengers, and approximately 191,000 incoming vehicles were reported at toll booths, representing around 575,000 passengers,” Mayor Char stated.
Regarding hotels, the local leader stated that they reached an occupancy rate of 82% on Friday and 97% on Saturday. The average occupancy rate during the 4-day festival was 80%, excluding other certified tourist accommodation establishments.
92% percent of attendees perceived a more organized and clean carnival. The city collected more than 194 tons of garbage in total.
Stage Artists
Likewise, he pointed out that 74,000 artists participated on stage in all Carnival events, 120 artisans crafted the floats, and the quality of the scenographic production in the coronation, which had 19,000 spectators and handed out 3,000 free tickets to the people of Barranquilla.
“We achieved the first sustainable Carnival in history: we collected 21 tons of recyclable material! Thanks to the valuable work of 120 recyclers from 12 associations, we managed to collect 21 tons of usable waste such as packaging, glass, plastic, paste, among others,” said the mayor.
Queen Melissa Cure was crowned queen of the 2024 carnival by her predecessor Natalia de Castro.
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