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"Carlos Gardel Week"

Festival of the Tango Culture

This Tango festival honors Carlos Gardel, known in Uruguay as the originator of the Tango.  The week of festivities takes place in Gardel's birthplace of Tacuarembo during the week of June 24th.  The entire town comes alive with parties, dancing, and celebrations.  There is even a museum dedicated to the life and times of Gardel.

Born in Tacuarembó, Uruguay, December 11, 1883, Carlos Gardel is universally recognized as the greatest tango singer of all times. Carlos Gardel’s music embraced the joy, the tragedy, the depth and the passions of life through the people’s music, the Tango. He was the first to embody its essence - the first to deliver it to the masses, to all people regardless of their station in life. Through Tango song, he captured the heart beat of the people. He communicated the deep emotional spirit of Tango. He sang the tales of love, of jealousy and passion, of life itself. His record sales catapulted him to international fame. He traveled to Spain, France, New York and throughout Latin America where everyone, rich and poor alike, recognized and embraced his sophisticated and sensitive presentation of Tango. He was able to introduce to people of diverse cultures and backgrounds a universal deep emotional thread.

It seems that only one individual could have epitomized the true spirit and evolution of the Tango. Carlos Gardel was blessed with unusual charisma and finely-tuned sensibilities. His modesty, humility and generosity engaged everyone who met him. He was both shy and powerful - women loved him and followed him, though he never found the one ‘woman of his heart’. He seemed to forever belong to the people. His eternal smile reminds us of that.