Panama’s capital is gearing up for an expensive holiday season. The Mayor’s Office of Panama (Alcaldía de Panamá) published a new public tender on Friday for its 2026 Christmas activities — including the ceremonial tree lighting and the logistics of the city’s traditional Christmas parade — with a reference price of $533,000. Combined with a previously awarded lighting contract worth nearly $3.3 million, the municipality’s total planned Christmas spending is set to exceed $3.8 million.
What Happened
The tender, issued under a best-value procurement format, covers a broad package of holiday programming dubbed “Christmas activities.” Proposals are due October 26, less than two months before the Christmas holiday.
The contract follows a separate award made in July, when Mayor Mayer Mizrachi granted Disaroca Group, S.A. the contract for the 2026 Christmas lighting at a cost of $3,299,893. That same company handled the city’s holiday lighting in 2025 under a $2.8 million contract, which included installing and removing illumination in parks and along main avenues across the capital district’s townships (corregimientos).
According to the municipality, the newly tendered project encompasses the “Calles que Brillan” program, artistic and cultural activities, recreational events for children and families, and the traditional Fiestas de Reyes (Three Kings celebrations), to be held in townships and public spaces across the district.
The tender specifications are remarkably detailed. They include the rental of a full professional audiovisual production system for the tree lighting — scheduled for November 29, 2026, at the Mirador del Pacífico — as well as the purchase of 9,000 meal coupons for security and emergency-response personnel working the parade.
The contract also calls for five mobile units for the parade route, staging platforms, 200 portable toilets, and eight-meter LED screens. It provides for hiring and coordinating artists, renting golf carts to move operational staff and organizers during the parade, and contracting private security personnel for access control, preventive surveillance, patrols, and crowd guidance. Even wardrobe is itemized: 500 sweaters and 60 coats for the operational, logistics, and support staff.
“Due to the magnitude, complexity and scope of the project, the contracting of a provider with technical, operational and logistical capacity is required to supply the goods and services necessary to guarantee correct planning of the activity,” the municipality stated in the tender documents.
Background
Christmas spending by Panama City’s municipal government has fluctuated sharply in recent years, often drawing public scrutiny over both cost and quality.
In 2024, shortly after taking office, Mayor Mizrachi backed out of a $1.49 million contract that had been set to be signed with the Consorcio Brillando 2024 — made up of Festieventos, S.A. and Grupo Pompa, S.A. — which would have covered both the holiday lighting and the Christmas parade. Instead, his administration secured private-sector donations to stage a parade branded “La Ciudad de las Estrellas / City of Stars” along with the Christmas lighting. The lighting that year drew criticism from residents over some of the installed structures.
The following year, in 2025, Mizrachi approved a $414,180 contract with Agencia Mango, S.A. for organizing and providing logistics for community and recreational activities tied to the Christmas 2025 celebration, in addition to Disaroca’s $2.8 million lighting contract.
Under the previous administration of Mayor José Luis Fábrega (2019–2024) of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the capital’s 2023 Christmas lighting alone cost $3.2 million.
What This Means for Panama
The combined $3.8 million-plus price tag makes the 2026 holiday season one of the most expensive in recent memory for the capital, surpassing the $3.2 million spent on lighting in 2023 and well above the donation-funded model Mizrachi championed in his first year.
The scale of the spending is likely to fuel debate about how public money is used for festivities in a city that also faces pressures on services and infrastructure. The tender’s unusually granular requirements — from portable toilets to sweaters for parade staff — suggest the municipality is seeking to lock in comprehensive logistics well in advance, though the October 26 proposal deadline leaves a tight timeline before the November 29 tree lighting.
Residents and transparency advocates will be watching the October award process closely, particularly given the criticism that followed the 2024 lighting displays and the rapid growth in contract values since the donation-backed approach of Mizrachi’s first year in office.
This story was originally reported by La Prensa.