Peruvian festivals and parties are always memorable, so I should have expected my first Quincinera to be quite an epic event. Fiestas are taken quite seriously here, and I suspect a substantial portion of every family’s income is spent on celebrations of some sort. Quincinera’s are huge parties in honor of a girl’s 15th birthday. I’ve heard a lot about these events, so when my host sisters invited me to join them for their friend’s Quincinera, I jumped at the chance to attend my first Peruvian Quincinera.

The event was held in the town’s coliseum, which houses the basketball, volleyball, and football courts in a large cement gymnasium of sorts. There were between 200 and 300 guests in attendance, all sitting in an enormous circle around the perimeter of the coliseum. There were pink balloons, streamers, signs, and other decorations adorning the gym walls, and girls wearing prom-like dresses were situated next to a table with a huge pink and white cake. Around 11:00pm the Quincinera made her grand appearance as she slowly descended from the top of the stairs, preceded by her brothers waving shiny swords and accompanied by an honored escort and her parents. The guests rose and oohed and ahhed over her shiny, pink, poofy dress as Thalia’s famous Quincinera song played in the background. Following her entrance, several speeches were made and she danced to the same song six times (yes, six!) with various honored guests. I’m not sure what the deal was with the song or its rhythm, but absolutely no one was clapping on beat, which became increasingly obvious as people tired of listening to the same song on repeat.

Around 12:30am after the introductory dances were winding down, women in evening gowns delivered enormous plates of food to everyone in attendance. Steak, sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, etc- which we were somehow expected to eat gracefully with a flimsy plastic fork and no knife. I saw several people near me (including myself, surprise surprise) launch their corn and/or potatoes onto the dance floor. Once we finished our massive second dinner, so began the “Hora Loca”, or “Crazy Hour” in case anyone really needed that translated for them. A clown comes running into the building and around the huge circle of guests, waving balloons and jumping frantically as loud music and bright lights begin flashing throughout the coliseum. He proceeds to pull the Quincinera and all of her friends onto the dance floor, give out balloons and masks, and begin a series of ridiculous dances. I of course couldn’t escape, so I was lucky enough to participate in la hora loca which turned into muchas horas of dancing. The whole night was quite an experience- it reminded me of a lower-budget version of MTV’s “My Super Sweet 16” Peruvian style.