⚠️ Freshness — read this first. The 2026 official program has not been published yet (checked October 3, 2026; festivaldesumpango.com still shows the 2024 edition). The 2026 edition number has not been announced either; the 2025 festival was billed as the 47th (Ojo con mi Pisto, October 30, 2025). What is confirmed for 2026: on September 21, 2026 La Hora reported that about 50 kite groups are preparing for the festival, scheduled for November 1 at Sumpango’s municipal stadium. Every time and price below is labelled with the year it comes from — most are the 2025 edition. The 2025 program was reported on October 30-31, so expect the 2026 details in late October 2026. We update this page when they land.
The giant kites do not fly. That is the one thing to know before you spend a Sunday and $25-$50 getting to Sumpango, and almost nobody tells you.
The Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes says the barriletes range from 2 to 22 metres and “pueden o no volarse” — they may or may not be flown, depending on surface area (mcd.gob.gt). In practice, the 10-22 metre monsters you have seen in photographs are raised and displayed as static exhibition pieces. In the 2025 program, the kites actually launched into the air were the 4-metre ones, at 14:00.
This is the #1 tourist disappointment at Sumpango. It is not a reason to skip the festival — it is a reason to go with the right expectation: you are going to a monumental open-air art exhibition with a kite flight attached, not to a giant-kite launch.
Quick summary: Sumpango’s Festival de Barriletes Gigantes is on November 1 every year — in 2026 that is a Sunday and a national asueto. The giant kites (up to 22 m) are static exhibition pieces; only the 4-metre kites were scheduled to fly, at 14:00 in the 2025 program (2026 program not yet published). Entry was free in 2025 in both Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez. About 50 kite groups are preparing for 2026. Shuttles from Antigua are listed at $25-$50 per person (no year stated on the listings — confirm when booking). Sumpango is 13 km from Antigua but plan 1h30 each way on the day — a 2018 Prensa Libre report warned queues can reach 22 km. Bring cash in small bills. Sleep in Antigua, not Sumpango.
Quick facts
| Date | November 1, every year — in 2026, a Sunday and a national asueto |
| Venue (Sumpango) | Campo Municipal, km 43.5 Carretera Interamericana (2025) |
| Venue (Santiago Sacatepéquez) | Inside the General Cemetery (2025) |
| Entry | Free in 2025, both towns — organisers have floated charging (see below) |
| Distance from Antigua | 13 km, ~21 min normal driving (map-app estimate — not festival-day reality) |
| Plan for, on the day | 1h30 each way (operator’s own festival-day planning figure) |
| Do the giant kites fly? | No — 2-22 m kites “pueden o no volarse” (Ministerio de Cultura). The 4 m kites flew at 14:00 in 2025 |
| 2026 program | Not published as of October 3, 2026 — expected ~Oct 30 |
| 2026 so far | About 50 kite groups preparing; festival scheduled for Nov 1 at the municipal stadium (La Hora, Sep 21, 2026). A Provial communiqué dated Aug 28, 2026 (read Oct 7, 2026) gives the activity window as Oct 30 to Nov 2 and says a sketch of the entry and exit points will be reviewed |
What actually happens, and when — 2025 edition
Everything in this table is from the 2025 program as reported by La Hora, quoting the Municipalidad and the Comité Permanente. The 2026 program is not out yet. Do not book a non-refundable anything around these hours.
| Time (2025) | What happens |
|---|---|
| Oct 31, 19:00 | Lunada — the night-before gathering |
| 08:00 | Activities begin |
| 08:30 | Giant-kite exhibition opens — category A (10-15 m diameter) and category B (4-6 m) go up on their poles, on the ground, for the judges and the public; the children’s category flies its kites at the same time |
| 14:00 | The 4-metre kites are flown — this is the actual flight |
| 17:00 | Open-air marimba orchestra concert |
| 07:00-18:00 | Grounds hours, per a 2025 event listing |
Security in 2025, per La Hora: more than 200 PNC police in the municipality, 19 Provial agents directing traffic on the Interamericana, six rescue bodies on standby and a CONRED command post. The organisers expected about 100,000 people. The 2026 deployment has not been announced.
The catch nobody mentions: the shuttles get you out before the kites go up. Every shuttle below that states a return time leaves at 14:00 — the exact hour the 4-metre kites were scheduled to fly in the 2025 program. So on the published timings, the standard round trip has you in the car park at the moment the only kites that actually fly are going up. If seeing kites in the air is the point of your trip, ask the operator directly whether they hold for the flight before you pay — and be aware that the 2026 program is not out yet, so the flight hour could move.
Entry: free in 2025 — but verify before you go
In 2025, entry was free at both festivals. The Municipalidad de Sumpango and the Comité Permanente were explicit: “el ingreso al festival será gratuito y abierto a todo el público” and “No existe ningún cobro por acceder a nuestra población y al campo de fútbol.” Santiago Sacatepéquez was also listed as free in 2025. It was free in 2022 as well.
The honest caveat: in 2023 the mayor said organisers were “evalúan dinámicas para cobrar ingreso” — evaluating ways to charge admission — calling it a complicated subject. No amount was ever set and no fee has been announced for 2026. Treat “free” as 2025’s fact, not a 2026 guarantee.
Getting there from Antigua
Shuttles and tours
| Operator | Price (per person) | Departs / returns | Year stated? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atitrans — shuttle only | $25 round trip | dep 08:00, return 14:00 | Listing undated (“November 1st”) |
| ShuttleNation | $25 round trip | dep 08:00, return 14:00 | Listing undated (“only on November 1st”); hotel pickup |
| Guatemala Transportation | $30 | dep 07:00, return 14:00 | Listing undated |
| Atitrans — guided tour, both towns | $50 | dep 08:00, return 14:00 | Listing undated; includes guide + box lunch; Santiago and Sumpango |
| Antigua Tours by Elizabeth Bell | was $65 in July | was dep 7:30am, return ~1pm | ⚠️ Could not re-check: dated “Sunday, November 1st, 2026” when we read it in July; on Sep 24, 2026 the tour page returned “page not found” and the company’s site showed only a maintenance page |
⚠️ On the undated listings: these are the listed prices, with no year stated (all re-read on September 24, 2026). Prices and departure times change year to year — confirm both when booking. Atitrans lists an Antigua office at 2a Calle Oriente 12. ShuttleNation’s listing includes hotel pickup and drop-off in Antigua, one backpack or suitcase plus one handbag (an extra backpack is $5), and requires changes or cancellations at least 24 hours ahead.
Not staying in Antigua? The same operators list festival-day runs from elsewhere (listed prices, no year stated, re-read September 24, 2026):
| From | Operator | Price (per person) | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guatemala City | Atitrans | $35 round trip | dep 08:00, return 14:00 |
| Guatemala City / airport | Guatemala Transportation | $60 back to the city, $65 on to Antigua, $75 on to Panajachel (min. 2 people) | dep 07:00, leaves Sumpango 14:00 |
| Panajachel (Lake Atitlán) | Guatemala Transportation | $48 round trip, or $60 continuing to Antigua | dep 05:00, leaves Sumpango 14:00 |
💡 Continuing to Lake Atitlán? Guatemala Transportation lists a $48 variant that drops you in Panajachel after the festival instead of returning you to Antigua. If Atitlán was already on your route, that turns a day trip into a leg — see our Antigua to Lake Atitlán route guide for what the normal (non-festival) run costs and how long it takes.
Chicken bus
A 2018 traveller report — the only bus account we have — describes it this way: there is no direct bus from Antigua under normal conditions; you change at Chimaltenango; the Chimaltenango → Sumpango leg cost Q5; on festival day buses ran roughly every 10 minutes; total around 1 hour.
We are not going to publish a total. The Antigua → Chimaltenango fare is not published anywhere we could verify, so any “total chicken-bus cost” you see (including from us, previously) is guesswork. Bring cash and ask at the terminal.
What we deliberately do not tell you
There is no verifiable published source for the Uber price from Antigua to Sumpango (or whether Uber even serves Sumpango), the taxi fare on November 1, the official parking fee, the 2026 road-closure plan, or toilet provision. Route-planner apps will happily generate a taxi price for this trip — that is an algorithm’s estimate, not a published fare, and we will not repeat it. We would rather leave a gap than strand you with an invented number.
Plan 1h30 each way — not 21 minutes
Sumpango is 13 km from Antigua. A map app will tell you 21 minutes. On November 1 that number is fiction.
- A shuttle operator plans 1h30 each way on festival day. That is the number to plan your day around.
- A 2018 Prensa Libre report warned that queues on the Interamericana can reach 22 km, and that jams had been routine on November 1 in earlier years. Entrances were reported at km 40, 43.5, 44.5 and 47, and the advice that year was to leave Sumpango after 20:00 to miss the worst of the jam.
- November 1, 2026 is a Sunday and a national asueto. That is peak domestic family travel — Guatemalan families are going to the cemeteries and to the festival on the same day you are. The traffic, not the kites, is the real story.
Traveller reports suggest arriving around 06:00 to watch the kites being assembled and to beat the crowds. Note this conflicts with a 2025 listing that gave the grounds’ hours as 07:00–18:00 — we cannot confirm what happens at the gates before 07:00, so treat the 06:00 tip as a traveller’s advice, not a published opening time. La Hora reported (2025) parking for 14,000+ vehicles across 10 entry gates.
Driving yourself: entrances, parking and the way out
Checked October 7, 2026: a communiqué from Provial, the road-safety directorate of the Ministry of Communications (CIV), on the government news site prensa.gob.gt (dated August 28, 2026; read October 7, 2026), says Provial joined a second logistics working table where the sketch of the main entry and exit points of the municipality and of the festival areas will be reviewed, for the activity “programada del 30 de octubre al 2 de noviembre” (scheduled from October 30 to November 2). Also at that table: the Sacatepéquez departmental governor’s office, the Municipalidad de Sumpango, CONRED, INGUAT, the PNC and its traffic department, the Ministry of Culture and Sports and local kite makers. The communiqué gives no routes, closures or times, so no 2026 traffic plan is public yet (checked October 7, 2026). The most detailed plan we could find is the one Sumpango’s municipal traffic police (PMT) gave Prensa Libre in 2018 — use it as a map of how the town handles the day, not as this year’s rules:
- Four entrances from the Interamericana: km 40, km 43.5, km 44.5 (San Juan de Dios) and km 47 (Colonia Vistas al Sol).
- Three parking areas in 2018: at the end of Avenida Niño Dormido (zona 5), between 2a and 0 avenida (zona 3), and a private lot at km 44, on the right-hand side of the highway. The PMT suggested the km 44 lot, then a walk of about 800 m along 7a avenida to the cemetery and another 300 m to the festival grounds.
- From the km 40 entrance, the zona 5 lot was 1.2 km from the festival; mototaxis charged Q5-Q8 per passenger (2018).
- Exits were at km 40, 44.5 and 47. For the return toward the south of the capital, the PMT suggested avoiding the Interamericana via Santa Lucía Milpas Altas and Bárcenas, Villa Nueva, joining the road to the Pacific at km 22.
- The head of Sumpango’s kite committee said in 2018 that traffic was already building by 09:00.
Safety in the crowd
- Stay clear when a giant kite is lowered. On November 2, 2025, as the celebration in Santiago Sacatepéquez’s cemetery was ending, a giant kite fell toward a boy who had not noticed it was being brought down; he got to safety between two tombs, avoiding the bamboo frame, and walked away unhurt (Emisoras Unidas). Watch the poles, not just the kites.
- Emergencies: in 2025 six rescue bodies and a CONRED post were on standby at Sumpango (La Hora). The national emergency line is 119 (CONRED).
Sumpango or Santiago Sacatepéquez?
| Sumpango | Santiago Sacatepéquez | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Municipal football field beside the cemetery, km 43.5 | Inside the General Cemetery — steep climb up |
| Scale | 65,500 visitors (2024), 100,000+ (2023); ~50-60 collectives building kites | Smaller |
| Timing | All day; 4 m kites flew ~14:00 (2025) | A morning event (in 2023: exhibition 07:00-08:00 to 16:00, flight 08:00-10:00) |
| Entry | Free (2025) | Free (2025) |
⚠️ Do not count on a kite flight at Santiago on November 1, 2026. The sources conflict: in 2023, Prensa Libre put the Santiago flight on November 1 in the morning. For 2025, the organisers’ agenda (as published by Prensa Libre) put the exhibition on November 1 and the flight on November 2, from 07:00, with free entry — while the Ministerio de Cultura’s 2025 program listed a 9:00 raising of giant kites in both towns on November 1, and Emisoras Unidas reported that the kites flew in Santiago that day. The 2025 agenda also held a Noche de los Emponchados vigil at the cemetery on October 31. Which pattern applies in 2026 is unconfirmed. If Santiago is the reason you are travelling, contact the municipality before you commit to a date.
Both towns are Maya-Kaqchikel, and the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes describes the tradition as UNESCO-recognised. Doing both towns in one day is a real, sold product — that is what the $50 Atitrans tour is.
Where to stay: Antigua, not Sumpango
If you are coming from abroad, Antigua is the practical base: every shuttle and hotel-pickup service we found runs from there, and Sumpango itself is a small town without a visitor hotel scene. (To be clear about who else is there — the crowd is overwhelmingly Guatemalan day-trippers, 65,500 of them in 2024, not hotel guests.) If you want the 06:00 arrival, book Antigua for the night of October 31.
Where to stay in Antigua Guatemala
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Practical checklist
- Cash only, small bills. Assume no cards anywhere on the grounds.
- Informal parking: traveller accounts (blog, ~2025) suggest having Q20-Q30 in cash on hand. No official parking price is published — this is a traveller report, not a posted rate.
- Arrive early — around 06:00 per traveller accounts, to see the kites assembled and to beat both the crowd and the road.
- Pickpockets work the tight crowds (visitor reports). Go early, keep your bag in front of you.
- Food on the grounds, per traveller accounts: atole, chuchitos, elotes, pepián.
- Fiambre is not festival street food. It is the November 1-2 dish, eaten at the graves with family. We have found no source saying it is sold at the festival grounds — do not travel hungry expecting it.
- Sun and open ground. The Sumpango venue is an open football field.
Common questions
Do the giant kites fly? No. The 2-22 m kites “pueden o no volarse” per the Ministerio de Cultura; the giants are static exhibition pieces. The 4-metre kites flew at 14:00 in the 2025 program.
What is the entry fee? Free in 2025 in both towns. Organisers floated charging in 2023 but never set an amount. Re-check before you go.
How long does the trip take? Plan 1h30 each way on November 1 — not the 21 minutes a map shows for the 13 km.
When does the 2026 program come out? The 2025 program was reported on October 30-31, so expect the 2026 one in late October 2026. As of October 3, 2026 it is not published; what is known is that about 50 kite groups are preparing for November 1 at the municipal stadium. We update this page when the program lands.
Related
- Antigua Flower Festival — two weeks after the kites (November 14–15, 2026), Antigua’s streets fill with flower installations; if you’re basing in Antigua, early-to-mid November covers both events in one trip
- Todos Santos Cuchumatán horse race — the other famous November 1 spectacle, a Mam Maya riding ritual in the Huehuetenango highlands. Same day — you can only do one.
- Día de los Santos in Guatemala — the holiday the kite festival belongs to: fiambre, the cemeteries, and why kites at all
- Antigua to Lake Atitlán — if you take the $48 Panajachel-drop variant, this is what comes next
- Guatemala events calendar — every major recurring event, by month
