A video of the 2026 Piña Colada Festival parade, in the province of Ciego de Ávila, sparked a wave of ironic and critical comments from Cubans who compared the atmosphere of the event to that of a wake, amidst an unprecedented energy crisis in Cuba.
The clip was posted on the official Facebook page of the event and accumulated over 102,000 views and 1,120 comments. It shows images of the parade through the streets of the city with low public participation and a visibly subdued atmosphere, contrasting with the festive tone that the regime attempted to project during the 23rd edition of the festival, celebrated from April 2 to 5 in Ciego de Ávila and Morón.
The irony of the Cubans was not without reason. The province had been under maximum blackout conditions since March 30, with power outages lasting up to 21 hours a day, precisely when the festival began.
The context was even more explosive in Morón, one of the event's venues. Just three weeks prior, on March 13, that city was the scene of massive protests triggered by a continuous blackout lasting over 26 hours, during which demonstrators took over and set fire to the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba, chanting slogans like "Freedom!" and "Homeland and Life", and a young man was injured by gunfire during the police crackdown. Cubalex documented at least 14 arrests.
Far from acknowledging that discomfort, Arnaldo Rodríguez —director of the festival and deputy to the National Assembly for Morón since 2023— called the protesters "mob" and "antisocials" and described Morón as a "cultured, educated, and patriotic" city.
El mismo Rodríguez described the festival's realization as "a heroic feat" given the circumstances of the energy crisis. Another musician loyal to the regime, Israel Rojas, leader of the duo Buena Fe, also participated in the event and justified his presence with the phrase "culture also saves", declared after his concert at the Teatro Principal in Ciego de Ávila.
The festival adapted its format to the crisis. It was held without massive lighting in Máximo Gómez square or large screens. The official event announcement on Facebook celebrated that everything turned out to be "pleasant and safe."
The popular response in the comments was different. Phrases such as "the wakes in my town have more atmosphere" encapsulated the widespread perception that the parade reflected not joy, but the exhaustion of a population subjected to blackouts, food shortages, and recent repression.
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