Tiago Bettencourt and DAMA will be the stars of the «ambitious but contained» program for New Year's Eve in Albufeira. There will also be a novelty: a special TVI program broadcast live for six hours, on December 31st, from the center of Albufeira.
The news was presented this Friday, at a session by the sea, at Praia da Oura, which was attended by journalists and dozens of businessmen, mostly members of the Albufeira Entrepreneurs Association (APAL), the Chamber's partner in promoting the celebrations.
The strong day will be, of course, the 31st of December, with concerts, entertainment and fireworks in Albufeira and also in Oura, but the program will extend over the weekend, with the Paderne Medieval event, in the village of the same name (January 1st to 4th), and with the Solrir festival, which returns to the Salgados Congress Center (January 1st to 4th).
The expenses of these days of entertainment, which mayor Carlos Silva e Sousa mocked by saying they would be "a scattering of money", will be paid by APAL and by other companies and entrepreneurs that are associated with the programming, as well as, to a lesser extent, by the Council of Albufeira. For now, some details of the schedule still need to be fixed, and neither Carlos Silva e Sousa nor José Lourenço dos Santos, presidents of the Chamber and APAL, wanted to reveal the exact amount.
«What matters is the spirit of cooperation between the municipality's entrepreneurs who, once again, joined together to support an event that today represents one of Albufeira's calling cards», stressed the mayor. Carlos Silva e Sousa recalled that the end of the year projects the municipality and represents a «brand of combat against seasonality, giving new impetus to local businessmen, who make their living mainly from tourism.
The program aims to attract Albufeira, to all parishes, as there will also be initiatives in the parishes of Guia and Paderne, over several days, «visitors and tourists from the region and the country, but also from neighboring Spain. We are attacking the our brothers, in terms of promotion», guaranteed the Albufeirense mayor.
The objective, he stressed, is to «create more attractiveness in Albufeira, promoting these events in a non-traditional period. This is an immaterial investment made in the good name of our municipality», added the mayor.
The program details were presented by Paulo Dias, chief of staff of the municipality's presidency and programmer of the event.
And then it became known that, this year, Albufeira will be celebrating as early as the afternoon of December 31st, between 14 pm and 00 pm. TVI will broadcast a Special New Year's Program live from the city centre. There are six hours of broadcasting broadcast by the leading audience station, which is associated, for the first time, with the New Year's Eve celebrations in Albufeira.
«We have just closed the transmission of this program with TVI, which has an estimated audience of over 1 million viewers and will promote the municipality and all the New Year's programming», revealed Paulo Dias.
On the last day of 2014, the bulk of the festivities will pass on the stage at Praia dos Pescadores, which receives two big names in the Portuguese music scene today. Or rather, «two good wave artists», as Paulo Dias called them.
The DAMA will be the first to act, from 22 pm onwards, in a choice thinking “especially the younger audience and their families”.
The revelation band of the moment promises to animate the Albufeira public with the themes that launched them into the spotlight: “A Balada do Desajeitado” and “Luísa”. The group will present their first album “Uma Questão de Princípio”, which occupies the 3rd place in the national top sales and broke the pre-streaming record on Meo Music, being the most listened pre-listening album ever in history of the service.
From 23:15 pm, the stage receives Tiago Bettencourt, one of the most important artists of new Portuguese music. The ex-vocalist of Toranja and Mantha enters the new year, bringing in his luggage his most recent work, entitled “Do Princípio”.
Tiago Bettencourt takes the stage at Praia dos Pescadores for a concert with no shortage of themes such as “Morena” and where the musician will revisit some of the most outstanding hits of his career, including “Carta”, “Canção Simples” and “Só Mais Uma Return".
At 12 chimes, the skies are flooded with color with the usual fireworks session, which will take place at Praia dos Pescadores and Praia da Oura. The first minutes of 2015 will be animated by Tiago Bettencourt, who returns to the stage.
The party is not limited to Albufeira. And so, Avenida Dr. Francisco Sá Carneiro, in Oura, welcomes the Star Parade, a parade of circus artists who liven up the streets and commercial establishments, adhering to juggling, acrobatics, fireworks and many surprises.
Paulo Dias recalled that this stop on the street began two years ago and, this time, “it will increase in quantity and quality”. The objective, he stressed, is "to support the nightclubs on that avenue."
In addition to being a «diverse program that seeks to attract families and more visitors at this time», as the programmer pointed out, the New Year in Albufeira also takes the opportunity to show different points of the county. For this reason, for four days, from 1st to 4th January, Paderne goes back in time and welcomes nearly 10 visitors who will have the opportunity to walk the streets of this village in the Barrocal of the Algarve in a unique environment.
The Paderne Medieval recreation invades the old core of the village, transforming it into a medieval market where gastronomic delicacies, ancient arts and crafts, exhibitions and musical performances alluding to the time will not be lacking. Visitors will also be able to watch the historic parade that portrays the ceremony for the delivery of the Letter of Donation to Paderne, which this year celebrates 710 years.
After the success achieved in the debut of Solrir in Albufeira, at the beginning of this year of 2014, with more than six thousand spectators, the
Festival de Humor is part of the End of the Year 2014/2015 program, bringing back to Albufeira the best of what is done in Portugal in the area of stand-up comedy. From the 1st to the 4th of January, from 21 pm, the best Portuguese comedians will take to the stage at the Palácio de Congressos, at Herdade dos Salgados.
Cristina Arvelos, responsible for organizing Solrir, only said that the program would be released soon, with the presence of humorists Nilton ('a sort of ambassador' of the festival) and Herman José ('reason for the birth of Solrir') having already been confirmed.
Highlighting the involvement of local businessmen in promoting the New Year in Albufeira, the president of APAL also underlined the importance of the event, which «is a national brand in terms of tourism and which appears as a lever to make the activity more dynamic and offer the who visit us with a diverse and well-known national program».
José Lourenço dos Santos reaffirmed the commitment and effort shown by APAL's partners in carrying out the New Year in Albufeira, demonstrating «that they are available to continue supporting this programme, contributing to reinforce our tourist brand».
The director of APAL, which has about 140 members in the most diverse economic sectors, launched an appeal to entrepreneurs from Albufeira: «we still haven't gathered enough financial resources to cover the expenses of the end of the year in Albufeira. Therefore, we appeal to businessmen, whether APAL members or not, to join and contribute. The benefits of this programming revert to all of us!»
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