200 thousand people visited Albufeira, from December 29th to January 2nd, as part of the year-end events in that city, according to the local Chamber. The concerts by Aurea and DAMA, on New Year's Eve, or the SOLRIR Humor Festival were some of the initiatives that confirmed Albufeira «as one of the favorite tourist routes for families for the end-of-year celebrations».
On December 31st, «more than 70 thousand people chose the stage at Praia dos Pescadores to toast the family to the new year», refers the municipality of Albufeirense. "The farewell to 2016 was made with two great references in the national music scene, Aurea and DAMA, who made the audience dance to the sound of the most well-known themes and the new sounds of the most recent albums", he adds.
At midnight, the fireworks marked the beginning of the new year, with a spectacle of light and color streaking the skies of Albufeira, launched over the bay of Praia dos Pescadores and Praia da Oura.
The DAMA took the stage right after the fireworks session, to get the audience to sing to the rhythm of songs such as “Balada do Desajeitado”, “Luísa”, “Sometimes”, “It doesn't work” or “No I make a point".
After twelve tolls, Avenida Sá Carneiro was “filled with excitement with the star parade, a parade of circus artists who surprised visitors with elaborate performances and figures of great visual impact».
The «Paderne Medieval» took, for four days, 12 thousand visitors to that typical village of the Algarve Barrocal, which went back in time, like the Sul Informação did the trick. The «narrow streets of the village» became «a true medieval market with delicacies of the time, dances, historical recreations, demonstrations of arts and crafts and lots of entertainment», says the Câmara de Albufeira.
The highlight of the event took place on the first day of the year, with a historic parade that portrays the ceremony of the delivery of the Donation Letter of the Castle, village and patronage of the church to the Order of Avis, by D. Dinis, an ephemeris that celebrates 712 years.
The SOLRIR Humor Festival also returned to the Algarve Congress Palace, in Salgados, for four days of great laughter, on December 29th and 30th and January 1st and 2nd. Herman José, João Evaristo and Joaquim Parra in “Moce Mó”, Aldo Lima or Improviso Armandi with André Sobral were some of the artists to act, joined by “Môce dum Cabréste” or Nilton.
In total, according to the organization, this initiative received 5600 spectators.
Carlos Silva e Sousa, the mayor of Albufeira, responsible for the events, accompanied and participated in all manifestations of the program, making a positive assessment of these five days.
"We bet on a diverse set of events that aim to create an offer that is transversal to all ages and complements what is good in our hotels and restaurants", he said.
«The end of the year in Albufeira has, in the activities we promote, a great attraction, but it is made up of dozens of other offers that exist for the most varied tastes and this complementarity is essential for us to reach the end with a feeling of accomplishment. », he added.
Carlos Silva e Sousa also stressed that «globally we had no major problems in the various activities, and even on the most critical night, the number of occurrences was residual, which also meets our goals».
The mayor is already looking to the future and launches the challenge: «we want the end-of-year program to also extend to Ferreiras and Olhos de Água and we are already working on this, in the same way that we have been working to implement attractive initiatives in Albufeira, Guia and Paderne. It will be a seed that we want to see grow and that should involve more and more people from all over the county», he concluded.
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