Iberoamérica Viva is a new festival that aims to celebrate the cultural ties that unite the 22 Ibero-American countries.

Uruguay will be the first country to host the event and seek to "lift the spirits" of audiences and artists after a difficult season and the impact the pandemic on cultural activity.

The event will take place on Sunday, Aug. 22 at the National Auditorium of the Sodre in Montevideo, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Ibero-American Summits of Heads of State and Government.

Through the various disciplines represented at the event, the aim is to celebrate the richness, diversity and stories of cultural cooperation in Ibero-America.

The festival is also an open window to rekindle the region's cultural flame and a proposal to promote film, music, theater and dance, and other Ibero-American creative disciplines.

"The promotional video we made for the festival starts by saying that these are very hard times for culture and we believe that doing this at this time is a vindication in some sense, [because] culture has had a hard time, the world has had a hard time, society has had a hard time," said organizers. 

The festival will also be one of the first in the country to resume live shows, but with a reduced capacity. Today, almost 70% of Uruguay's population is immunized with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine and a reduction of cases has allowed the reopening of cultural life, with capacity and preventive measures.

"It seems to us that (doing it here) is like killing many birds with one stone in some sense; it is integrating many personalities and many feelings in the same night." 

Under the slogan "Celebrate what unites us!" the festival, which will have its central performance from Uruguayan Sodre Youth Orchestra and many other artists who will put on a singular and high-level show.