Gagá and Palos

Beneath merengue and bachata sit older Afro-Dominican traditions that most visitors never encounter. Palos, also called atabales, are long hand drums played in groups at saints' festivals and family ceremonies in the countryside, with call-and-response singing that can run all night; the rhythms differ from region to region and the drums are made from hollowed avocado or mahogany trunks. Gagá is played in the sugar bateyes, the settlements built for cane workers, and comes from the Haitian rara tradition carried over by migrant labour: processions of bamboo trumpets, whistles, drums and dancers that move between communities through Holy Week. Both are living religious practice, not performance.

What you actually see

• Palos drums - long hand drums hollowed from single trunks.
• Saints' festivals - where palos is played, mostly in the countryside.
• Gagá processions - bamboo horns and dancers through Holy Week.
• Cultural centres - Santo Domingo venues that programme both.

When to go

Palos accompanies saints' days through the year, with a concentration around the patron festivals of individual towns. Gagá belongs to Holy Week, particularly Thursday to Sunday, in the bateyes of the eastern and southern sugar regions. Cultural centres in the capital programme both at other times.

Honest expectations

These are religious ceremonies within specific communities, not shows, and turning up with a camera is intrusive; go with someone from the community or through a cultural organisation, and ask before filming. Bateyes are poor settlements and visits arranged casually can feel extractive. Hotel folklore shows bear little relation to either tradition.

Nearby

The sugar bateyes lie around San Pedro de Macorís and La Romana.