Inti Raymi

Inti Raymi was the great Inca festival of the sun at the June solstice, suppressed by the Spanish in 1572. The version staged today was created in 1944 by the writer Faustino Espinoza Navarro, working from Garcilaso de la Vega's chronicle description, as a piece of indigenista cultural revival, and it has run annually since. It moves through three settings on 24 June: an invocation at Qorikancha, a passage through the Plaza de Armas, and the main ceremony on the esplanade at Sacsayhuamán, where several hundred costumed performers enact offerings, speeches in Quechua and a symbolic sacrifice before tens of thousands of spectators. It is theatre with a scripted text, not a surviving rite, and Cusco is entirely clear about that; it is also the largest festival in Peru after Candelaria and fills the city for a week.

What you actually see

• The three stages - Qorikancha, the Plaza de Armas and the Sacsayhuamán esplanade.
• The performance - hundreds of costumed performers with a Quechua script.
• The 1944 revival - a reconstruction from Garcilaso's chronicle, not a survival.
• The scale - tens of thousands of spectators on the hillsides.

When to go

24 June every year. A full day, starting early. Grandstand seats at Sacsayhuamán sell out well in advance; hillside standing areas are free but fill from dawn.

Honest expectations

This is a staged re-enactment, not a continuous tradition. Accommodation prices in Cusco multiply for the week and book out months ahead. Crowds are enormous, the sun at 3,700 metres is fierce, and pickpocketing is common. Free viewing spots require arriving hours early.

Nearby

Sacsayhuamán is the main venue; Qorikancha and the Plaza de Armas host the earlier stages.