The Irresistible Chocolate Festival

When our calendar marks a long weekend, San Carlos de Bariloche is one of the most popular destinations chosen by tourists because this city always offers a wide array of attractions and activities. Year after year on Easter Week there is a new pretext for being there again: The Chocolate Festival.

The City Hall and Mitre Street watched us walk over and over again along their sidewalks and take part in various events. The breaking of the chocolate bar was actually a pleasant moment because it put an end to a magnificent creation of 40 centimeters of width, 2 of thickness and 120 meters of length made by pastry chefs.

It was one of the first street tastings we decided to join in a familiar and cheerful atmosphere. However, this was not the only one: every day we could also come across games, exhibitions of Easter foods, meeting of sculptors in wood, among other events.

Sweet Creations

We did not miss visiting any specialty shop, where we could enjoy chocolate in classic and fancier presentations. In the street, a festival of paper bags with colorful and golden decoration in the hands of consumers evidenced the pleasure of tasting every single specialty. In fact, this was another pretext for bringing back the tastiest creations, some made by the renowned and new brands of chocolate manufacturers as well.

Easter Sunday was the crucial moment. We joined a crowd - where there was no room for a single soul - at the park overlooking the huge Lake Nahuel Huapi to attend the breaking of the giant Easter egg exhibited over there. We applauded the master chocolatiers, the protagonists of this amazing decorated work of art with a ribbon. The typical clock tower at the city hall was also part of this spectacle, since people were anxious to know how long it was left before the countdown. This time Saint Bernard dogs, which are used to lazily wandering around, were not definitely the stars of the events.

A huge crane was necessary to lift the person in charge of the first cut on the chocolate surface with a mountain pickaxe. Three, two... one! At that precise moment, we were delighted by a release of balloons and silver little pieces of paper above our heads as a smooth southern breeze led them towards the lake. It was a memorable time, especially for kids, enveloped in the music coming from the main stage.

One by one the huge dark chocolate layers fell down on a tablecloth to be immediately handed out among the people who had been lining up for several hours to taste them. The wait was long but worth it for getting the most praised chocolate, and kids were the luckiest in the crowd.

Undoubtedly the key of this successful Chocolate Festival was the hard work made by lots of people. Likewise, a great number of visitors shared the homage to this exquisite confectionery and welcomed this idea with enthusiasm.

Who has not been made this request “Bring me chocolate!”? This splendid southern city in Argentina is closely related to renowned chocolate shops and the old recipes made by the first denizens that contributed to the local gastronomy. “So, let’s bring back some chocolate!

The festival today

The National Chocolate Festival takes place every year over the Easter long weekend. In 2026 it ran from April 2 to 5 and opened on Tuesday, March 31 with “Chocolate makers for a day”, when children from local schools decorated Easter eggs.

• The Chocolate Walk on Mitre street: more than 600 meters of activities, shows and food.
• The Bunny House and the mapping show at the Civic Center.
• The world’s longest chocolate bar, over 200 meters long, made by more than 200 master chocolatiers.
• Music and shows: in 2026 the Río Negro Philharmonic played and there were aerial shows.

Chocolate in Bariloche has more than 80 years of history: it began in the late 1940s with European immigrants, and today the city has about 30 factories producing over 2,000 tons a year. Each edition’s program is announced a few weeks before Easter.