As the 27th Guadalajara Film Festival bore down on its close this week, Friday’s narco blockades threw some confusion on the event. Visitors wondered whether Saturday’s closing ceremony would go on as scheduled, with a few Friday night red carpet and party events suspended. However, when the Saturday sun broke, the festival went forward unabated.

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, (March 17, 18 and 19) Avenida Chapultepec and environs will rev up with a music festival initiated 12 years ago by the government of France and continued every year since then by Guadalajara City Hall.

Choirs from seven countries will be taking part in an expanded third Festival Internacional de Coros Jalisco Canta from April 21 to 28.

To accommodate scenery construction for an upcoming play, the third program of concerts by the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) has been moved a few hundred yards from the Degollado Theater to the State Government Palace (Palacio de Gobierno).

The First Madonnari Festival took place at the Guadalajara Zoo last weekend, with 70 highly-talented street artists laying down chalk depictions of different animals.

The 27th annual Guadalajara Film Festival opens this week, bringing hundreds of films, industry professionals, press and public together in a week-long celebration of cinema.