Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito, is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains. With a population of approximately 1,397,698 according to the last census (2001), and, as estimated by the municipality, approximately 1,504,991 in 2005, Quito is the second most populous city in Ecuador, after Guayaquil. It is also the capital of the Pichincha province and the seat of Quito Canton, which since the 1993-12-27 passage of the municipal law known as "Ley de Régimen para el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito" is also known as Metropolitan District of Quito. The canton had 1,842,201 residents in the 2001 national census. In 2008 the city was designated as the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations.

The elevation of the city's central square (Plaza de La Independencia or Plaza Grande) is 2,850 m (about 9,350 ft), making Quito the second-highest administrative capital city in the world (after La Paz, Bolivia), and the highest legal capital (ahead of Sucre, also in Bolivia, and Bogotá, Colombia).

Quito is located about 25 km (15 miles) south of the equator. A monument and museum marking the general location of the equator is known locally as la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world), to avoid confusion, as the word ecuador is Spanish for equator.

Quito's origins date back to the first millennium, when the Quitu tribe occupied the area and eventually formed a commercial center. According to Juan de Velasco's 1767 book Historia del Reino de Quito, the Quitu were conquered by the Caras tribe, who founded the Kingdom of Quito about 980 CE.

Indigenous resistance to the Spanish invasion continued during 1534, with Diego de Almagro founding Santiago de Quito (in present day Colta, near Riobamba) on August 15 of that same year, later to be renamed San Francisco de Quito on August 28. The city was later moved to its present location and was refounded on December 6, 1534 by 204 settlers led by Sebastián de Benalcázar, who captured Rumiñahui and effectively ended any organized resistance. Rumiñahui was then executed on January 10, 1535. On March 14, 1541, Quito was declared a city and on February 14, 1556, was given the title Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de San Francisco de Quito ("Very Noble and Loyal City of San Francisco of Quito"). In 1563, Quito became the seat of a royal audiencia (administrative district) of Spain and became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru with its capital in Lima (see Real Audiencia de Quito).

The Spanish promptly established the Catholic religion in Quito, with the first church (El Belén) built even before the city had been officially founded. In January 1535, the San Francisco Convent was constructed, the first of about 20 churches and convents built during the colonial period. The Spanish actively evangelized the indigenous people and used them as slave labor for construction, especially in the early colonial years. The Diocese of Quito was established in 1545 and was elevated to the Archdiocese of Quito in 1849.

In 1809, after nearly 300 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was a city of about 10,000 inhabitants. On August 10, 1809, a movement was started in Quito that aimed for political independence from Spain. On that date, a plan for government was established that placed Juan Pío Montúfar as president with various other prominent figures in other positions of government. However, this initial movement was ultimately defeated on August 2, 1810, when Spanish forces came from Lima, Peru, and killed the leaders of the uprising along with about 200 inhabitants of the city. A chain of conflicts concluded on May 24, 1822, when Antonio José de Sucre, under the command of Simón Bolívar, led troops into the Battle of Pichincha. Their victory marked the independence of Quito and the surrounding areas.

Just days after the Battle of Pichincha, on May 24, 1822, the leaders of the city proclaimed their independence and allowed the city to be annexed to the Republic of Gran Colombia. Simón Bolívar went to Quito on June 16, 1822, and was present at the signing of the Colombian Constitution on June 24, 1822. When the Gran Colombia dissolved in 1830, Quito became the capital of the newly formed Republic of Ecuador.

In 1833, members of the Society of Free Inhabitants of Quito were assassinated by the government after they conspired against it, and on March 6, 1845, the Marcist Revolution began. Later, in 1875, the country's president, Gabriel García Moreno, was assassinated in Quito. Two years later, in 1877, Archbishop José Ignacio Checa y Barba was killed by poisoning while he was giving mass.

In 1882, insurgents arose against the regime of dictator Ignacio de Veintemilla. However, this did not end the violence that was occurring throughout the country. On July 9, 1883, the liberal commander Eloy Alfaro participated in the Battle of Guayaquil, and later, after more conflict, became the president of Ecuador on September 4, 1895. Upon completing his second term in 1911, he moved to Europe. When he returned to Ecuador in 1912 and attempted a return to power, he was arrested on January 28, 1912; thrown in prison; and assassinated by a mob that had stormed the prison. His body was dragged through the streets of Quito to a city park, where it was burned.

In 1932, the Four Days' War broke out. This was a civil war that followed the election of Neptalí Bonifaz and the subsequent realization that he carried a Peruvian passport. Workers at a major textile factory went on strike in 1934, and similar unrest continues to the present day. On February 12, 1949, a realistic broadcast of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds led to citywide panic and the deaths of more than twenty people who died in fires set by mobs.

In recent years, Quito has been the focal point of large demonstrations that led to the ousting of presidents Abdalá Bucaram (February 5, 1997), Jamil Mahuad (January 21, 2000), and Lucio Gutiérrez (April 20, 2005).

Quito is located in the northern highlands of Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin. The city has been built on a long plateau lying on the east flanks of the Pichincha volcano. The valley of Guayllabamba River where Quito lies is flanked by volcanoes, some of them snow-capped, that can be visible from the city on a clear day. Some of the volcanoes on the Central Cordillera (Royal Cordillera), east of Quito, surrounding the Guayllabamba valley are Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, Antisana, and Cayambe. Some of the volcanoes of the Western Cordillera, to the west of the Guayllabamba valley, are Illiniza, Atacazo, Pichincha, and Pululahua (which has the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve).

Quito's closest volcano is Pichincha, looming over the western side of the city. Quito is also the only capital in the world to be directly menaced by an active volcano. Pichincha volcano has several summits, among them Rucu Pichincha at 4700 metres above sea level and Guagua Pichincha at 4794 metres. Guagua Pichincha is active and being monitored by volcanologists at the geophysical institute of the national polytechnic university. The largest eruption occurred in 1660 when more than 10 inches (25 cm) of ash covered the city. There were three minor eruptions in the 1800s. The latest eruption was recorded on August 23, 2006, when a few puffs of smoke and a large amount of ash were deposited on the city. Although not devastating, the eruption caused significant disruption of activities, including closing of the international airport. It is unlikely that any serious activity will occur in the near future, and the topography of the volcano is such that, even if a major eruption were to occur, lava flows would head into the almost-unpopulated areas west of the volcano, sparing Quito, which lies to the east.

Activity in other nearby volcanoes also can affect the city. In November 2002, after an eruption in the volcano Reventador, the city was showered with a layer of fine ash particles to a depth of several centimeters.

Because of its elevation and its proximity to the equator, Quito has a fairly constant cool climate, Spring-like weather year-round. The average temperature at noon is 19°C (66°F) with a normal night-time low of 10°C (50°F). The annual average temperature is 15°C (64°F). The city experiences only two seasons: dry and wet. The dry season, June through September (4 months), is referred to as summer; the wet season, October through May (8 months), is referred to as winter.

These are numbers for the city proper only, not the whole canton, which also includes surrounding rural parishes (parish seats and their surroundings), which are separate from the city.

Quito is governed by a mayor and a 15-member city council. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and can be re-elected. The position also doubles as Mayor of the Metropolitan District of Quito (the canton).

In Ecuador, cantons are subdivided into parishes. These subdivisions are called parishes because they were originally used by the Catholic Church, but, along with the secularization and liberalization of the Ecuadorian state, the political parishes were spun off the ones used by the church. Parishes are called urban if they are within the boundaries of the seat (capital) of their corresponding canton, and rural if they are outside of those boundaries. Inside Quito (the city proper), the way in which the city is subdivided into urban parishes depends on the organizations which use those parishes (e.g., the municipality, the electoral tribunals, the postal service, the Ecuadorian statistics institute). The urban parishes of different types are not necessarily coterminous nor the same in number or name.

Later in 2008, the relatively small González Suárez parish was removed from the list , prior to the 2009 elections.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quito divides the city into 167 parishes, which are grouped into 17 zones.

The MetrobusQ network, also known as "Red Integrada de Transporte Público", is the bus rapid transit system running in Quito, and it goes through the city from south to north. It's divided into three sections—the green line (the central trolleybus), the red line (the north-east Ecovía), and the blue line (the north-west Corredor Central). In addition to the bus rapid transit system, there are many buses running in the city. The buses have both a name and a number, and they have a fixed route. Taxi cabs are all yellow, and they have meters that show the fare. There are nearly 8,800 registered taxicabs.

Although public transportation is the primary form of travel in the city, including fleets of taxis that constantly cruise the roadways, the use of private vehicles has increased substantially during the past decade. This has happened despite the fact that vehicles are twice as expensive as in the U.S., due to import tariffs and taxes. Because of growing road congestion in many areas, there are plans to replace the Trole with a light railway system, with construction expected to begin in 2009.

Because Quito is about 40 km (24.85 miles) long and 5 km (3.1 miles) at its widest, most of the important avenues of the city extend from north to south. The two main motorways that go from the northern part of the city to the southern are Avenue Oriental (Corredor Periférico Oriental) on the eastern hills that border the city, and Avenue Occidental on the western side of the city on the Pichincha volcano. The street 10 de Agosto also goes north to south through most of the city, running down the middle of it. Because of the hills and the city's curved shape, a grid pattern is extremely difficult to imply. The historic centre of the city is based on a grid pattern, despite the hills, with the streets Venezuela, Chile, García Moreno, and Guayaquil being the most important.

There is a railroad that goes through the southern part of Quito and passes through the Estación de Chimbacalle. It is managed by the Empresa de Ferrocarriles Ecuatorianos (EFE). This form of transport is nowadays used mostly for tourism.

Mariscal Sucre International Airport (IATA airport code: UIO) serves as the city's principal airport for passenger travel and freight. Its runway is 3120 metres long and is capable of handling many types of large aircraft. The main terminal is located on Avenue Amazonas. The airport is located 10 kilometres north of the city's centre, within driving distance to the main business center. Because of tall buildings and fog at night, landing from the south is not as easy as at many other airports. Its domestic flights go to Guayaquil, Cuenca, Lago Agrio, Coca, Tarapoa, Esmeraldas, Manta, Portoviejo, Macas, Tulcán, and many others. Flights to the Galápagos Islands are reached via Guayaquil. Several international airlines have offices in Quito; most of them are around Avenue Amazonas. The airport provides international connections to Madrid, Amsterdam, New York, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Lima, Santiago, Panama City, San José, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and many others. The construction of a new airport in the rural parish of Tababela, in the adjacent valley outside the city limits, began in 2006 and will be finished by 2010. The Mariscal Sucre International Airport will then become a big park.

El Panecillo is a hill located in the middle west of the city at an altitude of about 9,895 ft (3,016 m) above sea level. A monument to the Virgin Mary is located on top of El Panecillo and is visible from most of the city of Quito. In 1976, the Spanish artist Agustín de la Herrán Matorras was commissioned by the religious order of the Oblates to build a 134.5 ft (41 m)–tall aluminum monument of a madonna, which was assembled on a high pedestal on the top of Panecillo. Made of approximately 7,000 pieces of aluminum, the monument was inaugurated on March 28, 1976, by the 11th archbishop of Quito, Pablo Cardinal Muñoz Vega.

The figure stands on top of a globe, standing on top of a chained crocodile , symbolizing her triumph over evil (classic madonna iconography). What is not so traditional, however, is her wings. The monument was inspired by the famous "Virgen de Quito" (Quito's Madonna), also known as "the dancer" sculpted by Bernardo de Legarda in 1734, which now decorates the main altar at the Church of St. Francisco. This madonna represents a turning point of the Quito School of Art (one of the most renowned of the Americas) because it shows a figure with great movement (practically dancing), which is in contrast to the traditional static madonnas produced during the 18th century.

Parque Metropolitano Guanguiltagua is the largest urban park in South America at 1,376 acres (5.5 km²) (as reference, New York's Central Park is 843 acres ). The park is located in northern Quito, on the hill of Bellavista behind Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa. The park is suited for mountain biking, walking, and running. Most of it is eucalyptus forest with trails, but there also are numerous sculptures on display. The park has four sites that can be used for picnics or barbecues, and the eastern section has a view of Cotopaxi, Antisana, and the Guayllabamba river basin.

La Carolina is a 165.5-acre (670,000 m²) park in the centre of the Quito main business area, bordered by the avenues Río Amazonas, de los Shyris, Naciones Unidas, Eloy Alfaro, and de la República. This park started from the expropriation of the farm La Carolina in 1939. The modern design of the park was made by the Dirección Metropolitana de Planificación Territorial (DMPT). Pope John Paul II headed a great mass in the park during his visit to Ecuador in 1985. A giant cross has been built in this place.

Quiteños gather at La Carolina mostly on weekends to play soccer, basketball, and ecua-volley (an Ecuadorian variation of volleyball with less emphasis on spiking, which allows more of a throw). Some of the other activities are aerobics, kite flying, running, snacking, and people watching. The southern part of the park has a small pond where paddle boats can be rented and a skatepark for bicyclists and skateboarders. Artists are known to perform on weekends at the park. In the western part of the park, visitors will find the Quito Exhibition Center with different exhibits every month, the Quito botanical gardens , and a Vivarium.

La Carolina more or less resembles New York City's Central Park, since both La Carolina and Central Park are surrounded by tall buildings in relation to the area of both parks.

El Ejido is the third-largest park of Quito (after Metropolitan and La Carolina), and it divides the old part of the city from the modern one. This park is known for handicrafts available for sale every Saturday and Sunday, with all pricing subject to negotiation (that is, haggling). Local painters sell copies of paintings by Oswaldo Guayasamín , Eduardo Kingman, and Gonzalo Endara Crow. Otavaleños sell traditional sweaters, ponchos, carpets, and jewelry.

The long triangular La Alameda is located at the beginning of street Guayaquil, where the historic centre begins. It has an impressive monument of Simón Bolivar at the apex. There are several other interesting monuments in this park. In the centre of the park is the Quito Observatory, which was opened by President García Moreno in 1864 and is the oldest observatory in Latin America. It is used for both meteorology and astronomy. At the north end of the park are two ornamental lakes, where rowboats can be rented.

The Aerial tramway Station at Cruz Loma (part of the Pichincha mountain complex at about 13,123 ft (4,000 m). Since July 2005, Quito has had an aerial tramway, known as the "Telefériqo", from the city centre to the hill known as Cruz Loma on the east side of the Pichincha volcano. The ride takes visitors to an altitude of about 13,400 ft (more than 4,100 m) where they find a number of restaurants, coffee shops, and a variety of stores. There are also trails for hiking and areas where pictures can be taken of Quito. Because of the increased altitude and the wind on the mountain, it is considerably cooler.

Besides the aerial tramway to Cruz Loma, the Telefériqo as a whole is a visitor centre that includes an amusement park (Vulqano Park), fine-dining restaurants, Go Karts, Paint Ball, shopping malls, an extensive food court, and other attractions.

La Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world) is a small village administered by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, 22 mi (35 km) north of Quito. The village features a large monument, built on the site where the equator was thought to have crossed in the early 1980s. There is also a museum that contains a model of Quito, a planetarium, various exhibits, several restaurants, an open arena that is occasionally used for folkloric-dance performances, and a small chapel where couples can marry with one spouse standing in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern .

Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve, located a few miles northwest from La Mitad del Mundo, contains the Pululahua volcano, whose caldera (crater) is visible from a spot easily accessible by car. It is believed to be one of only a few in the world with human inhabitants.

Quito Zoo , located near the rural parish of Guayllabamba, about 12 mi (20 km) outside Quito, has the biggest collection of native fauna in Ecuador, including several kinds of animals that are sometimes targeted in Ecuador in the illegal fur trade.

Quito is the home city of six prominent football clubs in Ecuador. Domestically, the city's top three club (El Nacional, Deportivo Quito and LDU Quito) have won a combined 26 national championships, which accounts for over half of all championships won.

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Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito

Liga Deportiva Universitaria (LDU) de Quito, known colloquially as (la) Liga, is a professional football club based in Quito, Ecuador. They play in Serie A, the top-level of professional football in Ecuador, and their home stadium is the Estadio de Liga Deportiva Universitaria, best known as La Casa Blanca.

LDU Quito is the reigning South American champion having won the 2008 Copa Libertadores. The title is the first one to be won by a team from Ecuador, and the first international title won by a team from Ecuador. The team is historically one of the most successful teams in the country. They have won a total of 20 titles domestically (nine national championships, two Serie B titles, a record six professional Inter-Andean titles, and three amateur Pichincha titles). As of March 2009, IFFHS has LDU Quito ranked as the 20th top club in the world, ranking them one of the top ten clubs in CONMEBOL, and the top club in Ecuador.

Among their classic rivals are Sociedad Deportiva Aucas, Club Deportivo El Nacional, and most notably Sociedad Deportivo Quito.

LDU Quito has its roots as a semi-pro sports team based out of Universidad Central del Ecuador in 1918, with Dr. César Jácome Moscoso as the main leader (Liga Deportiva Universitaria is Spanish for University Sporting League). Under the leadership of Dr. Bolívar León, LDU Quito officially was founded on January 12, 1930. In those days Liga had different sports teams such as soccer, basketball, athletics, box, baseball, swimming, ping-pong, and chess. The team has a starting budget of around 500 sucres. That first team had as players (students from Universidad Central del Ecuador) had to pay for their own uniforms, medicines, and various expenses. Dr. León, had to design the first uniform, a white shirt with a red U having a background two triangles, one blue and another red, pretty similar to the University's chest. Amongst the first players were: Carlos Andrade Marín, Oswaldo Mosquera, Alfonso Cevallos, Alfonso Troya and "El mono" Icaza.

In 1932, LDU Quito won their first championship in football when a first division championship was organized in Pichincha province. This tournament was played by five teams: Liga, Gladiador, Gimnástico, Atlético, and Cleveland. Liga won all their games, and in the final game against Gladiador, played in the Municipal Stadium of "El Ejido", won by a score of 4-0. In that team, the players were: Jorge Zapater, Eduardo Flores, Alfonso Cevallos, César González, Jorge Vallarino, Jorge Naranjo, Bolívar "Ñato" León, Alejandro Dávalos, Humberto Yáñez, Humberto Freire, and Ernesto Guevara, with Bolívar León as coach.

A game played between Liga and Aucas will eventually become the most important game in the province, and the second most important in Ecuador. The Super Classic was born on February 11, 1945. That first game ended with a 1-1 tie. The Pichincha Football Association decided to give an opportunity to one of its teams to raise into the first category. On the 18th of the same month, the two teams met again, with another draw, 2-2. Liga was ahead in the score 2-0. Aucas scored, and when the 90 minutes were over, the time keeper ended the game, however the referee didn't notice and let the game continue for two more minutes more, and Aucas equalized. The attendance rioted and didn't let the game proceed into extra time unless the referee was changed. Finally the game restarted, but the score remained the same. That year, Liga had its first foreign player and coach, Carlos "El Chile" Díaz.

LDU Quito has had a lot of achievements in the last 18 years, winning six of its nine national titles in this period. The team has been important for the growth and development of the Ecuadorian football internationally as well, being an important contributor to the Ecuadorian national team that qualified and participated at the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups. In the 2006 edition, they were the team that contributed with the most players in a squad from a South American club with a total of seven players (Patricio Urrutia, Edison Méndez, Agustín Delgado, Cristian Mora, Paúl Ambrosi, Giovanny Espinoza, and Néicer Reasco).

Another important contribution of the team in the last years have been the contribution to the U-17 national team that obtained the first official title in Ecuadorian history: the 2007 Pan American Games. They contributed with at least four U-17 players in that squad: Deison Mendez, Pablo Ochoa, Carlos Delgado, and Israel Chango.

The team reached the semi-finals at the 2004 Copa Sudamericana, which matched their best achievement in international competition when they reached the semi-finals of the 1975 & 1976 Copa Libertadores. They surpassed that success on July 2, 2008, when they became the first Ecuadorian team ever to win the Copa Libertadores, after defeating Fluminense 3-1 in a penalty shootout after tying 5-5 on aggregate. Their success has flown through to the National Team, as six of their players were called up to the squad that faced Argentina and Colombia for the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers. As a result of their Copa Libertadores title, they will participate in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup, advancing automatically to the semi-final. They are the first non-Argentine/Brazilian team from CONMEBOL to participate.

On December 17, 2008 LDU defeated C.F. Pachuca in its 2008 FIFA Club World Cup semi-final match 2-0 to advance to the finals against 2007-08 UEFA Champions League winners Manchester United, to be played on December 21 in Yokohama, Japan. LDU lost the match against Manchester United 1-0 after a goal by Wayne Rooney.

The traditional uniform of LDU Quito throughout their history has been an all-white kit with the team's shield over the left breast. It is used when playing at home or away. The team's alternate kit is gray with orange detailing and is rarely used. the team uses a special black kit when competing in the Copa Libertadores. For the 2008 season, a special gold kit was used for the 2008 Copa Sudamericana, and another special black kit was used for the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. Umbro is the team's kit provider, with Swiss company Holcim as the team's top sponsor for the next three years. Powerade and Chevrolet are the team's other sponsors.

The badge of the club has changed slightly over the years. The original badge was a large red "U". In the 1990s, the team adopted a badge with a white "U" in an inverted red-and-blue triangle. Following the Copa Libertadores win, the club added a yellow star on top of the badge. The badge can be displayed with tiny blue stars on the top of the triangle -one for every national championship- but it is not part of the official badge.

Since 1997, LDU Quito has played their home games at Estadio de Liga Deportiva Universitaria, in the northern part of the city. It is the largest stadium in Quito in terms of capacity, and the second largest in Ecuador after Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha in Guayaquil. Its popular nickname, La Casa Blanca (English: The White House), is named so because the stadium is painted white, the team's principal color. Prior to that, they played their home games at Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, where the Ecuadorian national team and other clubs in Quito play their home games.

LDU Quito has the largest fan base in Quito and one of the largest in Ecuador. The most diehard fan group of the team is La Muerte Blanca (English: The White Death). During home-games, they are situated in the southern general section of the "La Casa Blanca" fervently cheering for the team. Typical of diehard fans of the sport, they cheer with large banners, flares, and drums, all while constantly bouncing in support of LDU Quito.

LDU Quito & Aucas have had a long standing rivalry since both are the oldest football clubs in the Quito. The matches, known as the El Superclásico de Quito (English: The Super Derby of Quito), have been an important match in their season. Since Aucas has been relegated to the Serie B, the Superclásico de Quito hasn't been played since 2006.

LDU Quito has also developed similar, yet smaller, rivalries with other teams in the city, specifically against Deportivo Quito and El Nacional.

Listed according to debut.

LDU Quito has had five players become the season top-scorer in Serie A. The team's all-time top scorer is José Vicente Charro Moreno, with 68 goals.

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Cathedral of Quito

The Cathedral of Quito (Spanish: La Catedral de Quito, officially La Catedral) is the cathedral church in Quito, Ecuador. Located on the southern side of La Plaza Grande, it serves as the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quito. It is considered to be one of the oldest cathedrals in South America.

Atypical of Spanish city design, the cathedral has two main entrances: one is part of the nave facing La Plaza Grande and the other is at the facade facing west. This is due to the geography of Quito when construction began. Ravines prevented the facade from facing the plaza, as is customary in Spanish city design. Artwork by artist of the Quito School of Art adorn the interior. The main alter is designed in Baroque style, while the exterior is orthodox Spanish.

The church has many historical points of interest. Plaques on the outside walls commemorate the launching point of Francisco de Orellana's expedition to the Amazon. The catacombs of the cathedral serve as a resting place to many important figures in Ecuador's history, such as independence leader Antonio José de Sucre, who is laided to rest at the Mausoleum Chapel. The small altar of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (English: Our Lady of Sorrows) has a plaque showing where Gabriel García Moreno was shot in 1875.

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Quito Fest

Quito Fest is a free and independent music festival. It takes place in Quito, Ecuador during September. Ecuadorian bands as well as international bands participate in the festival. During the first years, it took place in the Parque La Carolina but since 2005 it takes place in the Parque Itchimbia as the attendance is bigger each year. It's the biggest music festival in Ecuador and it's organized by the Muscia Joven foundation.

Bands: Kid Cósmico, Mortero, Mamá Vudú, Tanque, Sudakaya, Can Can, Lablú, Rocola Bacalao, Guardarraya, Muscaria, El Retorno De Exxon Valdez.

Bands: Koyi K Utho, Chaos Avatar, Starflam, Sudakaya, Siq, Amigos de lo Ajeno, Cacería De Lagartos, Mortero,Mamá Vudú, Los Zuchos del Vado, 38quenojuega, Rocola Bacalao.

Bands: Cartel de Santa, Korzus, Immer Fört, De2, Ente, Muscaria, Tzantza matantza, Guanaco y Dj Zyborg, Tanque, Cacería de Lagartos, Zuchos del Vado, Chulpi Tostado, Siq, Cafetera Sub, Descomunal, Curare.

Bands: Todos Tus Muertos, Chucknorris, La Caution, Ratos de Porão, Death By Stereo, Masacre, Sal y Mileto, Rocola Bacalao Fusión Mutágeno, Alicia Se Tiro Por El Parabrisas, Alma Rasta, F415, Madbrain, Curare, Descomunal, Likaon, Total Death.

Bands: Imposibles, Xtreme Tornamesas, Quito Mafia, Desus Nova, Lax'n'Busto, Messiah, Sarcoma, Funda Mental, Colapso, Paura, Koyi K Utho, Viuda Negra, Basca, Darkest Hour, Suburbia, Guardacan, Tanque, Canaille, Mamá Vudú, El Otro Yo, Sudakaya, Lucybell.

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