Residents of Playa Jaco in our Central Pacific coast are in for a spectacular sunset. On Sunday, April 1st, at the Malecon Bar Restaurant in Jaco, acclaimed Tica pop singer Debi Nova will perform an acoustic set as the sun goes down, as part of the Roxy Sunset Unplugged event. For those who are not familiar with Debi Nova, she is a talented singer and songwriter who has found success in the int...

From now until March 20th at 6:00 pm, readers of The Costa Rica Star have a chance to get creative with messages left on our Facebook wall and win two weekend tickets to the 2012 Festival Imperial. There are many reasons to participate, like TV on the Radio, the beautiful and talented ladies who will grace the stages, the onstage antics of Gogol Bordello and Cypress Hill, and many more. Ele...

This year's Festival Imperial is heavier on the estrogen than in previous years, and that's a very good thing. While we wait for the lucky reader who will take home two free weekend tickets to the festival, here's a look at some of the female artists who will grace the stages at La Guacima speedway in Alajuela on Saturday, March 24th and Sunday, March 25th. The Great Wilderness – Costa Rica ...

The free, open-air concert of Puerto Rican musical wonder group Calle 13 drew around 60,000 Ticos to La Sabana last night and set the stage for the rest of the 2012 International Festival of the Arts (FIA). Calle 13 managed to heat up the FIA, which will continue until March 25th. The night concert started with "Digo lo que pienso", followed by the mega-hit "Baile de los pobres." As is their si...

One of the most exciting musical acts that will play at the Festival Imperial this year is TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn-based band that has been producing an interesting brand of indie rock. TV on the Radio may not be as popular as some of the other acts playing at Festival Imperial, such as Maroon Five and Bjork, but they are darlings of the finicky indie rock critic industry spearheaded by Pitchf...

Putting aside social tensions, politics and conflict, I decided to venture inside the lives of the native Costa Rican Ngöbe tribe to see life from their perspective. The dusty road ahead seemed to never end, twisting and turning amidst the lush forests of Costa Rica’s southern region –for me, a new country altogether. The sun was up directly above us, shining with unforeseen intensity; the warm...

On Day 3 of filming on location in the cloud forest surrounding the Arenal volcano, celebrated Hollywood director M. Night Shyamalan was taking a morning stroll towards a quiet spot to think about the set up of the day's shots when he was stopped by a Tico crew member wearing a miner's head lamp around his forehead. The crew member was holding a menacing-looking venomous snake in his hands. “It...

The twenty-fifth iteration of the annual festivities at Palmares has not disappointed anyone thus far; in fact this year's celebration of what has become the de facto end-of-vacation carnival for Ticos has been mostly characterized by being more orderly and less raucous than in previous years. Two of the three major events that make Palmares a massive celebration have already taken place: the tr...

CURRIDABAT – Carlos Alberto Valerín lives in a modest home in the heart of a bustling suburb located east of San José, not far from the Juan Santamaría Elementary school, where decades ago his musical inclination would first become apparent. It's the first Monday of the New Year, and Valerín (as he is known in the musical world) is busy messing around with the settings of a wireless router. “I jus...

It seems there is a star shower going down on Costa Rica thesedays: Brangelina and Miley Cyrus have been around for Christmas, and in just a couple of few weeks, on the 3rd of February 2012, no other than Sir Elton John is going to give a concert at the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium. From the 6th of January to the 19th of April, Elton John will be touring the American continent, from the USA all th...

It's that time of the year when radio stations and entertainment journalists in Costa Rica begin releasing their “Best Of” music lists. Judging by the lists compiled thus far, the discerning musical tastes of Ticos are as diverse as the many animal species roaming around the country. British female contralto singers dominated business news daily La República's top ten albums of the year. The...