Cuenca Is Hosting 105+ National Delegations for the Tierras Vivas Festival This Week

If you have not been to the Portal Artesanal yet, this weekend is a good reason to fix that. The Festival Tierras Vivas 2026 lands in Cuenca on June 26 and 27 starting at 09:00, and it is bringing more than 105 national delegations from all four regions of Ecuador for two days of agroecology, ancestral knowledge, and Andean gastronomy. Admission is free.

What Is Tierras Vivas

Tierras Vivas (Living Lands) is the country's flagship gathering for the agroecology and food sovereignty movement. The Cuenca edition is organized by the Empresa Pública Municipal de Desarrollo Económico (EDEC EP) with the active mayor (alcaldesa subrogante) Marisol Peñaloza backing it. The festival is framed as a national encounter, not a local market, and the lineup reflects that. Delegates are coming from rural networks, peasant organizations, producer associations, popular economy collectives, universities, rural women's groups, native seed custodians, and Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities from across the country.

What You Will See

The main draw is the Feria Nacional Agroecológica, a marketplace running both days where you can buy healthy food, crafts, native seeds, traditional prepared foods, and products from rural micro-enterprises. This is one of the better places in Cuenca to find agroecological produce direct from smallholder farmers. Around the market, the program includes: Inti Raymi opening ceremonies marking the solstice, the Encuentro Nacional de Sistemas Participativos de Garantía (the national meeting of Participatory Guarantee Systems), dialogues on ancestral knowledge and medicine, Andean dance and music, native and heirloom seed exchanges, live ancestral cooking demonstrations, and the Festival Nacional de Danzas Folclóricas.

Practical for Expats

• Hours: 09:00 onwards both days. - Location: Portal Artesanal, on the road to Turi / Paucarbamba. - Entry: Free. - Language: Spanish, with Kichwa in some ceremonies. - What to bring: Reusable bag (organizers are asking specifically), water bottle, sun protection, comfortable walking shoes. - Cash: Small bills for vendors. Most will not have card readers. - Photos: Generally welcome. Ask before photographing Indigenous delegates or ceremony leaders.

Why It Matters Here

Cuenca is one of the most important cities in the country for this work, partly because of the surrounding rural parishes (Tarqui, Victoria del Portete, Molleturo, Ricaurte, Baños) that feed the city, and partly because of the municipal push under Peñaloza to make agroecology visible. If you have been curious about where your food actually comes from, this is one of the best weekends of the year to find out without driving to a remote parroquia.

Source: GAD Municipal de Cuenca — 'Cuenca reunirá a más de 105 delegaciones nacionales en el Festival Tierras Vivas 2026' (18 junio, 2026).