In 2015, the Loulé Carnival is dedicated to the European City of Sport and the “guests” will join the cause. Pedro Passos Coelho will wear boxing gloves, Angela Merkel will be the shotgunner, António Costa and António José Seguro will ride to victory, while José Sócrates, admittedly fond of jogging, this time, he will be watching everything from the top of cell 44.
A little over a week before the carnival corso departs, there are no hands to measure in the Loulé Carnival Museum-workshop. The cars are decorated with flowers, the finishing touches are given to the "dolls", while waiting, for example, for the head from António Costa, who will arrive in the next few days.
In all, it takes two and a half months of work, by around 100 people, to place the 14 floats on the streets, decorated with thousands and thousands of paper flowers – one of the characteristics of the Loulé's carnival – and with the personalities that marked the year in Portugal.
Palho is the man who put into practice the ideas that emerged for the floats. If some cars were designed since the beginning of the work, others were made with less time, such as, for example, the one that transports the cloistered José Sócrates.
"That was a bit short-term, we had to adapt an old puppet for this year, because it was a theme that had to be present in the corso," Palho told the Sul Informação.
Some of the dolls are made by Palhó himself, who learned how to make them over the 15 years he has taken to the Loulé carnival, others are ordered and others are “recycled”. “Politicians are almost always the same. We have heads that have already come out, that are retouched or adapted, but personalities don't change that much».
For this year, eight dolls were ordered, more than ten were recycled, and six were made in Loulé by Palho. The guarantee is that the work was carried out «within the time and, three days before the corso, everything will be ready».
Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, visited the carnival museum-workshop this Wednesday, accompanied by journalists, but that did not stop the angle grinder or the welding machine, which served as a “background” to the words of the mayor who says he's convinced it's going to be a big carnival.
"We have already sent a letter to S. Pedro, so that this year there is neither rain nor cold, so that we have one of the best editions ever", he said. In the rain, it seems that the mayor will have been attended to. As for the cold, you will see…
The biggest carnival ever, this one, is guaranteed with 800 extras, «two samba schools and, on Friday, we will have a parade of about 2500 children, dressed to the letter. We are repeating what happened last year, because it was a success, and this year we are going to extend this parade to Quarteira, Almancil, Alte, in short, to the main urban centers of the municipality. For this reason, this will be the biggest carnival ever», added Vitor Aleixo.
The budget did not increase compared to last year (200 thousand euros), since «the restrictions continue, so we reuse a lot of materials, but we worked so that the carnival did not suffer».
The Loulé Carnival takes place on the 14th, 15th and 17th of February, starting at 15 pm, on Avenida José da Costa Mealha.
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