The "Candelaria" feast fully justifies Puno's claim to the title of Folklore Capital, for its wealth of dances, ornamentation and sumptuous costumes.

This party is uninterruptedly celebrated for more than 30 years. It convokes many communities and dance groups of the whole south area of Peru and foreign delegations who are presented in big artistic competitions arriving with their own musical groups and dramatize in beautiful choreographs in parades by the streets and contests in the stadium of Puno.

The feast of the "Virgen de la Candelaria" begins on the eve of  the 2nd of February and last until the first Sunday after that day, and ends one week after continuing with the celebration of the Carnivals. On February 9th the folklore parade is celebrated. The groups, which paraded days before, on the 2nd, now return for a procession before the Virgin, who will gaze them from the atrium of the church. Then, folk groups set off through the city, dancing tirelessly until sunset. At the end of the week the feast ends in the cemetery, for the paying of respects of the dead.

The statue of the Virgin is small, and it represents a virgin of very white complexion and blushed cheeks. This Virgin is harbored in the Church of San Juan El Bautista.

 Its origin is related with the beginnings of the cult to the "Virgen de la Candelaria" (Candelaria Virgin) or "Virgen de Socavón" (Virgin of the Tunnel) in Bolivia. Is much venerated in Puno and Oruro, Bolivia.

In the afternoon's central day, the virgin statue leaves the church, and more than forty groups attired in the costumes and masks classic in the culture of altiplano dance, join crowd. Without doubt the outstanding groups are the Diablada, the Morenada, the Waka Waka, the Llamerada, the Tuntuna, the Caporal King, the Kallahuallas, and the Sikuri groups.

In this feast the "Diablada" is one of the most popular dances. The dance is born with the legend of some miners trapped in a collapse of a mine; they saw an army of demons that took them to hell illuminated with fire flames. The miners commended to the Virgin who kept them with life producing their rescue.

From that time all the miners called her their landlady and protector, and she was called the Virgin of the Candela or Candelaria.

The "Diablada" is the dramatization of this legend, the fight among the good and bad, which is presided by an archangel that dominates the demons that are accompanied by the "chinasupay" (the devil's woman), in the processions of the feast. The fantasy clothes worn during this dramatization are a masterpiece.