24 Jun 2027
Give the whole of 24 June to it and save your strength for the afternoon at Sacsayhuamán, where the full ceremony plays out. Take a grandstand seat if you can get one, or claim the free hillside by late morning.
24 Jun 2027. Times are approximate and can change from year to year.
The Inca greets the sun at the Temple of the Sun. Under an hour; watch free from Avenida El Sol or from a ticketed stand.
The coca ritual and the meeting with the city's authorities, watched standing and free.
The main ceremony on the esplanade, the longest act of the day. Grandstands are ticketed; the hillside opposite is not.
A cast of hundreds dressed as the Inca court carries the day. It starts at the Temple of the Sun in the morning, crosses the main square, and climbs to the zigzag walls of Sacsayhuamán for the afternoon.
You follow it on foot, and much of it costs nothing to watch. The catch is time: the unticketed places at every act are taken hours before it starts, so choose the one you care about most and get there early.
The first act, the salute to the sun, starts at the Qorikancha in the morning and lasts under an hour; the best spots on Avenida El Sol are taken before dawn. The cast of hundreds then walks with pututus and drums to the main square for the coca ritual, watched standing. At Sacsayhuamán the envoys of the four regions report, fire is lit, chicha is offered and the sacrifice of a llama is only enacted. It is all in Quechua. Dress in layers, bring a hat, sunscreen, water and something to eat, and on the hillside something to sit on. Treat it as a ceremony: stay behind the barriers, keep off the Inca walls, and keep your flash off.
Spanish colonial rule banned the festival, and the version staged today has been reconstructed from the chronicles every year since 1944.
The historic centre puts you within walking distance of all three acts, which matters on a day when traffic is kept out. Book early: it is the busiest week of Cusco's year.
Where to base yourself, and what else is on
The Cusco guide has the rest of the city.
Sixteen days of beer tents and brass bands on a Munich meadow. Get there on a weekday morning and a bench is yours without a booking.
Lima's purple month: a float carried through the old centre from dawn into the night on five days in October.