2024–2026 Since the 2025 Orchestra Festival, only one Golden Congo is awarded each year. In 2024 the
Barranquilla Carnival celebrated its 20th incarnation since being proclaimed
intangible cultural heritage by
UNESCO in 2003. As part of the celebrations, the Orchestra Festival did not hold a competition for the Golden Congo, but instead awarded one to every performer.
2012–2023 In 2012 Golden Congos for "best performance" (Spanish: variations on or ) and "
urbano music" were given for the first time, and the "newcomer" (Spanish: ) prize was reintroduced. In 2016 the Golden Congo for performance was split into separate prizes for vocalists and instrumentalists, and in 2018 "folk" was reintroduced as a genre category. On the 50th anniversary of the Orchestra Festival in 2019 no awards were given; instead, past competitors and winners returned to perform at the festival, including
Los Corraleros de Majagual,
Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto,
Pacho Galán,
Checo Acosta, , ,
Sergio Vargas, ,
Eddy Herrera, Bazurto All Stars, and
Jorge Oñate. In 2021 there was no
Barranquilla Carnival due to the
COVID-19 pandemic; the Orchestra Festival held a virtual event featuring past performances.
1995–2011 In 1995 the categories "newcomer" and "folk group" were discontinued, and a prize was introduced called the "" (English: rescuing what is ours prize). It later became known as simply "Lo Nuestro", and at one point as "Lo Nuestro 'Roberto de Castro'".
1994 In 1994 prizes for the musical genres of
merengue,
tropical, and
salsa were introduced, in place of "orchestra" and "ensemble". 1994 was also the last year that "newcomer" and "folk group" were awarded until their return in 2012 and 2018 respectively.
1989–1993 In 1989 the category of "newcomer" (Spanish: ) was awarded for the first time, and in 1992 "folk group" (Spanish: ) was introduced as a category; both were discontinued after 1994 and reintroduced in the 2010s.
1978–1988 In 1978 the category of "
vallenato" was introduced, which was also sometimes awarded as "accordion". The "ensemble" prize was occasionally awarded as "group" (Spanish: ) instead. From 1981 the ensemble prize was regularly split by either genre (
tropical/
salsa) or by nationality.
1969–1977 From 1969 to 1977 the only categories were "orchestra" (Spanish: ) and "ensemble" (Spanish: ). ==Special awards==