The Seafood Festival will return to Olhão between the 8th and 12th of August and, despite having one day less than usual, it will make up for it with another seafood stand. The year is one of contention, evident in the reduction in the budget and the length of the party, but the organization hopes to reach a level of total visitors similar to previous editions.
The option of taking a day off from the event is linked to the "crisis that the country is going through", which is reflected in the families, which forced the organization, in charge of the municipal company Fesnima from Olhão, "to various restrictions", said the mayor of Olhão Francisco Leal, at the presentation of the event, which took place last Friday.
The one that stands out the most is the reduction in festival days, which happened, on the one hand, to maintain the quality of the poster and, on the other, to try to have more people each day. «We felt that there was some difficulty here on the part of those who visited us», so the solution was to try to condense the offer, to reduce costs, trying to maintain the return.
"It's only five days, but we hope to be able to have the same number of people in fewer days," said Francisco Leal. A plan that the mayor justifies with the fact that there are many people who go to the event "two or three times a year", but who do not have the financial capacity to go every day.
Although he admits that, in many cases, "people will not come as often as they used to", he considered that those who thought to come do so because the event has less than one day.
For the organization, one less day means substantial savings, which will be "between 17 and 20 percent" compared to the 2011 edition." The Seafood Festival budget for 2012 will be 470 thousand euros.
Another of the great news of the 27th edition of the festival is the increase in the number of stands from «six to seven», according to the president of Fesnima Vítor Lopes. In addition to having more places to choose and buy the beautiful delicacies that made this event internationally famous, many of the stalls will now have ATMs. «To put an ATM machine inside the enclosure cost us a lot of money, so we encouraged the stands to purchase terminals», revealed, for his part, Francisco Leal.
At the price level, the same applies as last year, that is, 8 euros per person. A value that no longer includes the mug alluding to the current edition of the festival, which can be purchased inside the venue.
Francisco Leal admitted that it is quite possible that the municipality will have to support "whatever deficit there is", since this year it was very difficult to find support and sponsorship, but he argued that he could not drop "the first poster in Olhão". The name of ERTA even appears in the festival's promotional material, but it ended up not giving the expected support.
«When we started the Turismo do Algarve, we were expecting that they would still be able to give us substantial support, which did not happen. We are still hoping that two or three thousand euros may come, even if only to send the blind man to sing, as the saying goes», Francisco Leal said, laughing.
Musical poster again features big-name musicians and…Olhanense
It is not known that he will sing or play, but the Sporting Clube Olhanense roster will certainly rise to the stage of the Seafood Festival in Olhão. Olhanense's first team, which will return to play in the I League in the season that started this weekend, will be presented on the 8th of August, a Wednesday. Olhanense will heat the stage for Tony Carreira's concert, which is usually synonymous with a full house.
The next day, GNR, a Portuguese band that celebrates 30 years of career in 2012, perform. On Friday, space is given to a British Beatles tribute band. On Saturday, Rui Veloso takes the stage and the party ends on Sunday by the band Calypso, who will come from Brazil.
Every day, except the 8th, the locals will also be given the opportunity to show their art, with bands from Olhão being invited to make the first concert.
Seafood quality is the organization's commitment
As is customary in the presentations of the Seafood Festival in Olhão, there is never a lack of a word about the quality of the seafood that is served and a reminder that “there have never been any food problems” at this event in almost thirty years. At the same time, Francisco Leal took the opportunity to ask for more supervision in other events.
«We have had the pleasure of always having the presence of ASAE for some years now. We don't have any problems with that and even appreciate your help in ensuring that the quality is total. We only regret that ASAE does not have the same behavior with other similar events in other parts of the Algarve», said the mayor.
Despite refusing to name which events he had in mind, Francisco Leal explained that his concern is that there might be a problem at these parties and that «the Seafood Festival will take it on the table».
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