A festival celebrating one of Michoacán’s culinary outliers, its visually striking blue corn, is set to take place in Uruapan this weekend. 

The festival, known as Elote Azul Korhupo Anapu, aims to highlight the state’s botanical wealth and promote the trade of its emblematic blue corn. It will take place September 3–4 at the communal auditorium in San Francisco Corupo, a community in the municipality of Uruapan.

The region is known as the Purépecha Plateau, the agricultural heartland of the Purépecha people. 

Organizers expect up to 1,500 people to attend the event, which could earn the community some 600,000 pesos (US $30,000). 

The event will exhibit products derived from corn as well as cultural presentations of Purépecha tradition: the indigenous group has the historical distinction of never being conquered by the once-dominant Aztec Empire. 

Dances originating from Querétaro and México state will be presented: both states are also producers of blue corn. Folkloric dancers from the U.S. state of Oregon will also perform, and indigenous ball games will be presented as well as an elevation of paper Cantoya balloons.

While there are more than 60 varieties of corn in Mexico, blue corn offers some distinct nutritional advantages: the unusually colored crop contains less starch and has a lower glycemic index than its more commonly consumed paler rival. 

With reports from Agencia Informativa de México