Fiesta Provincial del Resero, Chivilcoy 2026: Schedule and Dates

Updated November 12, 2026, eight days before the festival opens.

Chivilcoy's gaucho weekend is a week away. The town holds its 30th Fiesta Provincial del Resero together with its 69th Fiesta de la Tradición, with more than 12 million pesos in prizes, according to Canal 26.

Schedule: Fiesta Provincial del Resero, Chivilcoy 2026

The Fiesta Provincial del Resero, Chivilcoy 2026 schedule runs from Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 22, and the main day is Sunday, November 22, with the desfile criollo (the gaucho parade), the entrevero de tropillas and the Gran Jineteada. The start time has not been announced yet: no page we opened gives a clock time for any of the three days, in local Argentine time or any other.

When it is published we will put it here, local time first. For reference, in November US Eastern time (New York, Miami), Bogotá and Lima are two hours behind Chivilcoy; Mexico City is three hours behind; and Madrid is four hours ahead.

How to watch: no TV or streaming plan has been announced. The Canal 26 report names no channel and no stream, so plan on being there, or on following the local paper, La Razón de Chivilcoy, over the weekend.

Riders, tropillas and artists: no riders or tropillas have been named. The musicians have: La Razón de Chivilcoy published the Friday and Saturday acts on September 18, and they are in the programme below.

Fiesta Provincial del Resero, Chivilcoy 2026 dates and programme, day by day

This is the programme as Canal 26 published it on September 20, with the artists La Razón de Chivilcoy reported on September 18. It gives the order of each day and no times.

What is not published: the start time of each day, the parade route, the jineteada categories, the judges, and the names of the riders and tropillas. If one event matters to you, arrive early that day.

Tickets, venue and getting there

Fiesta Provincial del Resero, Chivilcoy 2026 tickets

These are the prices in Argentine pesos that Canal 26 reports for this year:

• Friday 20: free and open to everyone.
• Saturday plus Sunday combo: ARS 30,000.
• One day only: ARS 25,000.
• Children under 12: free.

The report does not mention advance or online sales, payment methods or parking. Take cash and ID to be safe.

The venue

The festival is organised by the Centro Tradicionalista El Fogón, with municipal support, according to La Razón de Chivilcoy, and the travel site ViajanGo gives El Fogón as the main meeting point. Neither gives a street address for this year, and neither says where the parade passes. We will add both when a source confirms them for 2026; until then, ask in town or check the local paper before you travel.

Getting to Chivilcoy

Chivilcoy is about 160 km west of the city of Buenos Aires, on National Route 5. Provincial Routes 30 and 51 run through the surrounding district.

What you will see: each event in one line

The programme names the events without explaining them. This is what each one is; this year's rules and judges have not been published, so the judging notes below describe how these events usually work.

• Pialada: to pialar is to catch a running animal by the legs with a lasso. The pialador swings the loop and throws it a little ahead of the animal so that it closes on the front legs; at a country yerra, the champion is the one who lands the most throws.
• Aparte campero: a team of three riders has to cut its numbered cattle out of a herd and pen them in the shortest time. It is ranch work against the clock; a run lasts about two minutes or less, and judges check the horse, the tack and the riders' dress before they start.
• Jineteada: a rider has to stay on a bucking horse for a fixed number of seconds. A jury scores the ride, and the apadrinadores ride alongside to lift the rider off at the end.
• The usual jineteada categories: in crina limpia the rider is bareback, with a single strap round the horse's neck as the only hold; in gurupa surera there is a sheepskin held by a cinch, no stirrups, reins in one hand and the whip in the other; in bastos con encimera there are stirrups, and the feet must stay in them. At the Jesús María festival, crina limpia lasts 8 seconds and the other two 12; Chivilcoy has not said which categories it runs or for how long.
• Entrevero de tropillas: a tropilla is a group of horses trained to follow a bell mare, the yegua madrina. Several tropillas are mixed in a corral, the tropilleros ride out with their madrinas, the corral is opened and each horse goes looking for its own; the winner is the gaucho who gathers his whole tropilla first.
• Desfile criollo: riders and traditionalist delegations parade on horseback in gaucho dress. It is a parade, not a race.
• Peña: a night of folk music and dancing with a cantina. Chivilcoy's is announced as shows and dancing, with no contest mentioned.

Most horses at a festival like this are Criollos or Criollo crosses. Our guide to the Criollo horse covers the breed, and natural horsemanship vs jineteada covers the argument over how these horses are trained and ridden.

Who the resero was, and why November

The resero was the man who drove cattle or horses on horseback from the estancias to pasture, to railway stations, to slaughterhouses or to market. The festival is named for that job.

It shares its weekend with the town's Fiesta de la Tradición. Argentina marks the Día de la Tradición on November 10, the birthday of José Hernández (born 1834), who published El gaucho Martín Fierro in 1872 and La vuelta de Martín Fierro in 1879. Buenos Aires province made the date official in 1939 and the whole country followed in 1975.

Chivilcoy has the history for it: the district was created on December 28, 1845, and the town was founded on October 22, 1854.

It is one of several gaucho weekends this season. This weekend it is the turn of San Antonio de Areco's Tradition Festival, and in October it was the Bragado Horse Festival.

If you go: a short checklist

1. Pick your day. Saturday has the ranch events (pialada and aparte campero) and the first jineteada; Sunday has the parade, the tropillas and the big jineteada.
2. Do the sums on the ticket. The combo costs ARS 5,000 more than a single day and covers both Saturday and Sunday.
3. Arrive early. With no times published, the safe plan is to be there in the morning, above all on Sunday for the parade.
4. Give the horses room. Stay behind the fence, never walk behind a horse and keep children beside you.
5. Dress for a day in the open. Hat, sunscreen, water and closed shoes.
6. Check again the day before. Rain can move a gaucho festival, and the times may come out late.

What to watch next

Three things are still missing: the start times, the address and parade route, and any broadcast. We will update this page when they are published, and again after the weekend with the winners once they are officially confirmed. Until then, everything above is upcoming.

New to all this? Start with our disciplines guide and the glossary.