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How about a festival on one of the most remote islands in the world? Easter Island’s Fiesta Tapati de Rapa Nui is a celebration in a place that is fascinating to explore between events. Rapa Nui is the local name for Easter Island.
The Tapati Festival (Fiesta Tapati de Rapa Nui) takes place during the islands high season and is a mix of sporting events and singing and dancing. The singing and dancing take place at night on a stage at Hanga Vare Vare. There is also body painting and storytelling.
There are a range of sporting events including an island-wide triathlon (with local variations, including running while carrying about 20kg of bananas), horse races, swimming competitions, wave-riding/surfing and canoeing. A particularly local tradition is the Haka Pei, which involves charging 200 metres down a 45-degree slope on the trunk of a banana tree.
Handicrafts are displayed and there are local looking competitions. On the penultimate day there is a procession and on the last day the king and queen of Tapati are crowned.
Easter Island is small, so the festival draws in a large percentage of the inhabitants.
The History of Fiesta Tapati de Rapa Nui
Tapati Rapa Nui literally means Rapa Nui week, though it actually lasts for two. It began in the 1970s as a way of reviving the island’s culture and teaching the young about Easter Island’s history.
Other Things to Do on Easter Island
Of course, Easter Island is famous for its stone statues or Easter Island moai, yet there are also great beaches, volcanoes to hike to, the remains of old stone villages and the anthropological museum. For more information read Stranded in Paradise with Easter Island Statues by our editor, Mark Jackson, though don’t let him off the hook, as he did not try the great surfing on the north shore.
Given the variable quality of the Wi-Fi, it is worth considering downloading apps with useful information as you move around the island. You can find them here and here.
When is Tapati Rapa Nui 2025?
1 to 14 February 2024.
Flights to Easter Island
To find the best accommodation and worldwide flights, please search via our comparison engine, which scans all the major booking sites.
LATAM Airlines has flights from Santiago airport to Easter Island. British Airways flies from London Heathrow to Santiago, via Sao Paulo in Brazil. There is also a flight, once a week, to and from Tahiti.
For more on the Tapati Festival
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For more on things to do on Easter Island:
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All images, apart from of Ahu Tongarik provided by Imagina Rapa Nui.
