The Encuentro Vallenato Femenino ( Women's Vallenato Encounter), also known as Evafe or EVAFE, is a vallenato music festival that has been held annually in the Colombian city of Valledupar since 2016. Evafe hosts several competitions for female accordionists, as well as for singers and songwriters.
History Evafe is organised by the Decuplum Foundation (Spanish: ), directed by Sandra Arregocés. The competitions are open to women who perform vallenato, a genre of music from the Colombian Caribbean that has traditionally been male-dominated. Authors of an academic article on women who have won competitions at the Vallenato Legend Festival wrote that Evafe was possibly created "in response to the absence of female winners".
The first edition of Evafe took place in November 2016 at the in Valledupar, and was dedicated to Rita Fernández Padilla; competitions were held in five categories. Since then, Evafe has taken place annually. Several spin-off Evafe events have been held outside of Colombia, in countries including Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.
Competitions Evafe hosts competitions in several categories, whose winners are given the title of "queen" (Spanish: ). Five awards are given to accordionists: Professional accordionist (Spanish: ) Child accordionist (Spanish: ) Caribbean (Spanish: ), awarded since 2020, whose competition requires a performance of porro and cumbia. Outstanding apprentice (Spanish: ), awarded since 2019. International, awarded since 2025 to an accordionist from a country other than Colombia. The other competition categories of Evafe are Singer (Spanish: ), Songwriter (Spanish: ), and Best group (Spanish: ), which was awarded from 2016 to 2018.
In 2025, in addition to the usual competitions, a competition between past winners of the professional accordionist category was held, and the winner Wendy Corzo was given the title "sovereign of the professional accordion" (Spanish: ).
Winners of the competitions that are open to adults YearProfessional accordionistCaribbeanBest GroupSingerSongwriter and SongInternational12016 rowspan= "4" Evelyn Gómez, Wendy CorzoJadith MueguesDiana Marcela González"Viejo Amor del Valle" rowspan= "9" 22017Wendy CorzoLa Milagrosa(Mila Martínez, Leidy Salgado)Tatiana DíazSheila Tarazona"Contestación a Escalona"32018Nataly PatiñoRevolución FemeninaMaría Alejandra NavarroAndrea Barrios"A una Juglaresa"42019Loraine Lara rowspan= "8" Laura CardonaElsy Serpa"Sueño de Mujer"52020Yennifer QuinteroLeidy SalgadoIsabella VergaraJuana Contreras"Acordeón Loco"62021Carlina JulioSara Marcela AcostaElvia Diana Rincón"Me Cansé de Fingir"72022Maciel Gómez de la OssaLoraine LaraNina María Murgas ZuletaSandra Rivera"Mi Niñita"82023Anny GulfoNataly PatiñoNayeli RodríguezOvetta Jiménez"Rebelde"92024Alma Luz Araújo CastroMaría Victoria CastillaMaría Paula AbdalaYina Martínez"Mujeres y Vallenato"102025María del Rosario OrtizYorledys MezaSara PachecoYolanda AriñoMaría de Jesús Suastes112026Jeimy ArrietaSara MoraLeidy DazaYeraldine HernándezJessica Moreno "—" denotes years in which no award was given.
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