The music cuts out at the Cuban Art Factory and Coppelia closes because the ice cream is melted.
14ymedio, Darío Hernández / Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 June 2025 — The increasing number of blackouts respect fewer and fewer hours and fewer neighborhoods. Living in Havana’s most touristy areas doesn’t guarantee a night without power outages. This is true of Vedado, which has had power for just a few hours for several days. Even the most famous entertainment venues, such as the Cuban Art Factory (FAC), are not spared.
“The power goes out almost every day at dawn, and the power lines only give power to the bar,” says a worker at the bar, located on 26th Street and 11th Street. Without music and in the stifling Havana heat, the regulars pass the time chatting away, with no air except that of their fans and no dancing other than to an imaginary rhythm.
Many of the scheduled concerts must be canceled or postponed, the same employee indicates. The courtyard is dark, the auditoriums and exhibition halls dimly lit, mosquitoes hit the lamps at the bars—and the legs of patrons—the FAC is presenting its most subdued appearance these weeks. And not even the rebellion it displayed almost two years ago, when it launched the creative “Bring Your Light!” campaign against the energy-saving measures that the Ministries of Energy and Mines and Culture were attempting to impose on it, is of any use now.
During the day, the neighborhood isn’t much luckier. This Tuesday, just a few meters from the luxurious Iberostar Hotel in the K Tower, not even the traffic lights were working. Sitting on the steps of the Banco Metropolitano at 23rd and J Streets, several customers waited for the lights to come back on. At the busy intersection of L and 23rd Streets, by the Habana Libre, a patrol car seemed to be managing the passage of vehicles from one side to the other, but no: the same police car was trying to make its way through the chaos.
Across the street, the iconic Coppelia ice cream parlor did have electricity, but it didn’t matter: it wasn’t open because the ice cream had arrived from the factory already melted. “It’s disrespectful,” exclaimed a mother who had come with her daughter from a distance, only to find the place closed. “The truth is, it doesn’t matter when you come; the ice cream is always served melted, and the water is hot when they serve it,” another woman protested. “This is more like the cathedral of milk shakes.”
Along with a cordon to keep people out, a candy stand—cookies, sweets, bottled water—was the consolation prize for anyone who came to the ice cream parlor.
In other areas of the capital, the blackouts are also continuing. “They’ve been cutting off the power practically all night,” says a resident of Guanabacoa. “Here they cut it off last night from 12:20 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. and then from 4:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. And now it’s from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Not to mention the fact that we’ve been without water for four days.” The woman reports that some friends claimed to have heard people protesting by banging on pos and pans “around the Amphitheater.” The situation is not much different in Cerro, where residents say there were also protests near the Sports Casino.
“I live right next to an avenue, and the silence is incredible,” says the Guanabacoa resident. “People are physically and mentally exhausted. They go to bed nervously knowing that the power could go out at any moment, and with this heat, I assure you it’s impossible to sleep.” What worries her most, though, “is that this is just beginning; the hottest months are coming.”
The deficit projected by the Cuban Electricity Union (UNE) for this Tuesday’s peak hour once again exceeds Monday’s forecast . With an availability of 1,830 megawatts (MW) for a peak demand of 3,550 MW, there will be a deficit of 1,720 MW and an estimated impact of 1,790 MW.
Yesterday, according to the UNE report, “the service was affected 24 hours a day and the situation continued throughout the night.” The maximum impact was ultimately 1,760 MW, but this did not coincide with peak demand, but rather later, at 10 p.m.
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