First organized in 2002, Panama City’s One Thousand Pollera Parade has become a tradition in its own right and every year it is larger than ever. Taking place in the month of June, the parade has come to represent a present of the best of the city to its visitors.

Photos: Rubén Flores.

Grace and style.

The beauty of the white Pollera.

Simply spectacular.

A young man dressed in "Congo" costumes takes a break.

The Afro-Caribbean element.

A new generation.

An Emberá "gringa" joins the parade.

A mother-daughter affair.

Is this a Panamanian murga player or a Jazz performer.

Here she comes marching down the road.

Getting ready for the big day.

A lively combo.

Literary works from 170 countries can be found at Panama’s third International Book Fair at Atlapa Convention Center. The fair ends on Sunday, July 3.

Organized by the Panamanian Book Chamber, the event features Chile as guest country. Chilean president Ricardo Lagos traveled to Panama to inaugurate the fair, also serving as keynote speaker.

"Feria del Libro" includes seminars, symposiums and a series of entertainment activities for all ages.

In August:

The Theatre Guild of Ancon announces its upcoming play entitled "Black Comedy", by Peter Shaffer. This hilarious comedy is a favorite of all theatre goers. Find out what happens when a poor young artist, Brindsley Miller, and his debutante girlfriend Carol, are visited by Mr. Bamberger, a famous and influential art collector. In order to impress him, they borrow antique furniture, without permission, from their neighbor Harold. Then the light goes out and the fun begins when the electrician arrives and is mistaken for the famous collector.

The play will run August 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) at 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $10.00. For reservations and more information, call: 212-0060.

The Panamanian Associa-tion of Business Executives (APEDE) is organizing its Regional Management Congress, which will take place at Panama City’s Caesar Park Hotel July 21-23. The event, the main topic of which is "Competitive Management and Regional Business", will gather a large number of business executives from Central America and the Caribbean, who will have the opportunity to study the main indicators of competitiveness applicable to their strategies and operations.

For more information, call 227-3511, or visit the page: www.apede.org/congreso

The town of Las Tablas, capital of the southernmost province of Los Santos, is getting ready for the annual Pollera Festival, a tribute to the country’s national female attire. The event, which takes place during the festivities honoring Santa Librada, the town’s patron saint, is a folklore extravaganza where ladies of all ages will be judged for the beauty and grace with which they wear their Polleras.

The Visitor will offer more information on the festival in its next issue (July 14).

Italian pop singer Tiziano Ferro, who has captivated Latin American audiences in the last couple of years, has included Panama in his current tour. Everything is ready for his concert, scheduled July 6 at Anayansi Theater of Atlapa Convention Center.

Born in the town of Latina, near Rome, Tiziano showed great interest in music from an early age, and by the age of seven he already had his first guitar. Later on, he also studied percussion and piano.

Tiziano’s talent was discovered by producers Mara Majonchi and Alberto Salerno in 1997. For two years they coached him intensively in singing and composing, until they found Michele Canova, who proved to be the right arranger to fulfill Tiziano’s music needs. With the right team behind him, Tiziano knocked on literally every record company’s doors until eventually it was EMI spotted his commitment and snapped him up for a recording contract by on May 2001.

Tiziano released his first single, "PERDONO", in July 2001 and was a huge hit. Within a few weeks, the single shot to number one at both radio and sales singles charts. It stayed at the top of the charts for four straight weeks and went on to become the third best selling single in Italy in 2001.

Tickets to Tiziano’s concert cost $75.00 , $50.00 , $35.00 , $25.00, and can be purchased at Ticket Center, 279-1010.

Panama’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture will host EXPOCAMARA 2005, a commercial trade fair scheduled for July 15-17 at Panama City’s Atlapa Convention Center.

Although conducted on a somewhat smaller scale than EXPOCOMER (Central America’s largest international trade fair, which takes place in Panama each March) EXPOCAMARA should by no means be ignored, as it grants international investors to establish relationships with local partners.

For details and more information, call: 212-8144 ó al 212-8051.

Works by Chopin, Bartok, and Beethoven will be masterfully offered by Welsh pianist Richard Ormrod, at a concert scheduled July 6 at La Huaca Theater of Atlapa Convention Center, at 8:00 p.m. Ormrod's performance is organized by Panama's National Concert Association.

Richard Omrod was born in Cardiff, Wales. He began his public career at age ten, with the Glamorgan Orchestra.

Educated at Wells Cathedral School, King’s College and Cambridge University, Ormrod has been able to travel extensively from an early age, offering concerts in France, Germany, Austria, Bosnia, Hungary, Russia, Israel, Morocco and the United States, among other countries.

He made his first tour as a soloist with Philarmonia Virtuosi in 1996, which took him from Los Angeles to Tokìo. Ormrod has received the "Rubenstein", the "Nakamichi" and "Leeds" awards. He currently lives in London, and serves in the Piano Faculty of the University of Wales at Cardiff, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama" and at the "Royal Academy of Music".

Tickets cost $30.00 (musicians $15.00 and students: $5.00) and are for sale at the Argosy Bookstore (Vía Argentina, tel: 223-5344) and at the National Concert Association's office: 214-7236. Visit the page: www.conciertospanama.org

With Fashion Days 2005:

Former Miss Universe and Panamanian-born model Justine Pasek will be one of the belles taking part in "Días de Moda 2005" (Fashion Days 2005), a high fashion extravaganza scheduled October 5-7 in Panama City.

Organized by Physical, a local models and talent firm, together with Panama City's mayoralty, the event calls for a number of fashion shows, seminars and entertainment spectacles, featuring creations by some of the country's most renowned fashion designers and a number of international guests. Días de Moda will be broadcast around the world by the E! Entertainment & FashionTV cable network.

Panama will host the second version of the Central American Travel Market, the largest tourism trade fair of the region, scheduled October 9-11 at Atlapa Convention Center.

The fair has been organized as a technical/professional conclave in which all six Central American countries will have the opportunity to establish commercial relationships with wholesalers of the main, tourist-producing markets, especially Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The organizers of the Central American Travel Market also seek to divulge knowledge about the region and its tourist attributes through a number of specialized media especially invited to cover the event.

Recently, the countries of the region have joined forces to market Central America as a single destination through the name brand "Centroamérica, tan pequeña...tan grande..." ("Central America, so small...so big...").

Editor's note: This is nothing new. In the 1970's and 80's joint marketing with Central America brought a flow of tourists. A marketing concept that many potential visitors perceive more value if they get several countries for their money, instead of one.