Come to Medellín for Ritvales, stay for the city.
Special occasions give you a reason to plan a trip. It might be a beach, a city and its landmarks, or music itself: the songs you save for special moments. This time, it’s the music bringing you to Medellín. Ritvales may be the main reason to pack your bags, but the city has plenty to offer before you step into the festival and long after the last song ends.
Ritvales returns to Medellín on October 31 and November 1, 2026, at Parque Norte, in one of the city’s most visited areas, right next to Universidad Metro Station. Over two days, electronic music takes center stage, with house, techno, and progressive sounds filling an open-air venue designed not only for the music but also for moving freely whenever the beat takes over. This year’s edition revolves around the concept La energía se baila (roughly, “energy is something you dance”), celebrating the collective experience: that feeling you can only understand when thousands of people move to the same beat. Parque Norte opens its gates at 2:00 p.m. Admission is restricted to guests aged 18 and over, and official tickets are available through TuBoleta.
If you’ve already got your ticket, now is a good time to plan everything you can do around those two nights. Or perhaps three, if you fall in love with the city.
Before the festival, fall in love with Medellín
Ritvales was born in Medellín in 2014, when a group of friends set out to create a different kind of experience for the city’s electronic music lovers. Twelve years later, the festival brings together more than 50,000 people per edition, from Medellín locals to visitors from across Colombia and around the world. It has also built its own loyal community, known as the True Ravers, who secure their tickets months before general sales open. Major names in electronic music, including Above & Beyond, Charlotte de Witte, Adam Beyer, and Kölsch, have taken the stage here. Now, Ritvales is looking to reach other countries in Latin America and the United States, while keeping Medellín firmly at its heart.
A festival is also an opportunity to enjoy the local cuisine.
🌃 EL POBLADO
Provenza · Parque Lleras ·
Bars · Restaurants · Rooftop Terraces
🍸 LAURELES
Parque Laureles · La Setenta ·
Gastronomy · Bars · Nightlife
🎭 CENTRO
Metropolitan Theater · Traditional Bars ·
Culture · Music · History
And there’s a difference between going out in Medellín and simply going partying: here, you can enjoy a full night out with a great dinner, a coffee, a cocktail, and a rooftop terrace with a view before deciding where the night takes you next.
☕ LAURELES / COFFEE
Specialty coffee, traditional Paisa breakfast, neighborhood atmosphere
If you’re staying in Laureles, named one of the “coolest neighborhoods in the world” by Time Out magazine, or in Manila or Provenza in El Poblado, your day could begin with a true Paisa treat: specialty coffee and a traditional Antioquian breakfast, shared with friends or strangers who’ve joined you on your journey. The kind of morning when conversations go on longer than planned.
🎨 CENTRO / CULTURE
Plaza Botero, Museo de Antioquia, history, and cultural heritage.
From there, your journey can take you downtown, Medellín’s oldest and most vibrant neighborhood, where the city was born. Get off at Parque Berrío station on Metro Line A, and you’ll find yourself right at Plaza Botero, home to 23 bronze sculptures donated to the city by Fernando Botero himself. Next door is the Museo de Antioquia, housed in an early 20th-century building that holds part of Botero’s work alongside pieces by other Colombian artists.
✨ PROVENZA / EL POBLADO
Art galleries, stylish cafés, shops, and a vibrant atmosphere.
Or you can take a more creative route south. El Poblado is the area with the highest concentration of restaurants, hotels, and nightlife in the city. Within it, Provenza is a network of narrow streets filled with art galleries, stylish cafés, and shops that feel like they belong in another city, all within walking distance of Poblado station on Metro Line A.
Ritvales connects with a city where music is on the agenda every day of the year. Electronic music has an important place here, but concerts, festivals, and live performances span everything from vallenato to jazz, along with whatever happens to be playing that night at a bar in Laureles or downtown.
🫓 BERRAQUERA
Family recipes
🥟 MECATEAR
Street-food cravings
🌎 SABERES
Flavors from other regions
📍 OFFICIAL CITY HOSTS
Behind much of this offering are the city’s Anfitriones Oficiales de Ciudad (Official City Hosts): restaurants, cafés, and even drivers recognized with the Marca Medellín seal. They do more than offer good service; they share the city as they go. They’ll recommend what to order, tell you where a dish comes from, or share a local detail you won’t find in any online review.
You could start your day with an arepa, eggs, quesito (fresh farmer’s cheese), and calentado, a traditional mix of reheated rice and beans. Stop for a bakery treat midmorning, have bandeja paisa or a cazuela stew for lunch, and finish the night with something a little different.
🌅 BREAKFAST
Arepa · Eggs · Calentado
☕ MIDMORNING
Bakery
🍲 LUNCH
Bandeja paisa · Cazuela stew
🌙 NIGHT
Something a little different
Or do it the other way around: book a special dinner before heading out, or find a brunch spot to recharge the next day.
In Medellín, eating is another way to explore the city, and often a chance to meet someone with a story to tell.
Where to stay during Ritvales
Where you stay can make a real difference to your trip.
At several hotels and guesthouses, you’ll find hosts recognized with the Marca Medellín seal. They do more than provide a bed for the night: they can help put together an itinerary, find that last-minute festival ticket you’re missing, or personally show you around a neighborhood you hadn’t planned to visit.
When the music ends, Medellín is still waiting
After two nights at the festival, you might want to keep the party going, or bring things to a complete stop.
THE NEXT DAY
A morning of coffee and brunch in Laureles, a walk downtown, a museum visit, or a hike up Cerro Nutibara or Cerro El Volador are all good options for the day after. These are two of the seven cerros tutelares, the hills that surround and overlook the city, and both can be explored in a morning.
AN EXTRA DAY
If you have an extra day, it’s worth heading out of the valley and up to Santa Elena. You can get there by Metro and Metrocable: take Line K to Santo Domingo, then Line L to Parque Arví. Another option is to catch a bus from Placita de Flórez, right in the city center.
Up in the mountains, surrounded by mist and greenery, the silletera tradition is still very much alive. You can visit a traditional silletera farm, sit down with a family that has spent generations creating silletas (elaborate flower arrangements carried during Medellín’s famous Feria de las Flores), and walk among the flower crops.
It’s another way to experience Medellín: swapping the festival lights and speakers, for a while, for the quiet of the mountains.
Getting around Medellín without the hassle
🚇 Metro
🚠 Metrocable
🚌 Buses
📱 Apps
You can get around the city using a combination of the Metro, Metrocable, buses, and the usual ride-hailing apps.
Many taxi and private drivers are also recognized as Anfitriones Oficiales de Ciudad. Don’t be surprised if they recommend a place to eat that you won’t find in any guidebook.
BEFORE YOU GO
During the festival, check the official arrival and departure instructions ahead of time, plan how you’ll get back to your accommodation, and avoid relying on just one form of transportation.
Ritvales could be the start of your trip
Ritvales already gives you a reason to visit: the music, the artists, the atmosphere, and the chance to experience an open-air electronic music festival in Medellín.
But around those two nights, there’s an entire city to explore your own way: a downtown area with 23 outdoor sculptures, neighborhoods with their own character, people who welcome you as a guest rather than just a customer, and a mountain full of flowers just a Metrocable ride away.
23 sculptures
Walkable neighborhoods
Official City Hosts
Mountains and flowers
Because traveling for a festival can also be an opportunity to discover the place where it happens, and leave with much more than you came looking for.