Crossing the Guadiana River on foot, to go from Alcoutim to San Lúcar, will be possible in the three days of the Festival of Contraband – Guadiana Arts Traffic, a cultural event that will take place from March 24th to 26th in this municipality in the Northeast of Algarve.
A floating pedestrian bridge will be installed by Câmara Alcouteneja, which organizes the event, to allow easy and safe circulation between the two banks of the river and the two countries that it separates.
“We have just ensured that we will be able to install this bridge, which will be the ex-libris of the festival and will allow us to cross the river to Spain on dry foot. It will be mounted during the three days of the festival, although subject to some security requirements, with which we agree and subscribe in full», he revealed to the Sul Informação the president of the Chamber of Alcoutim Osvaldo Gonçalves.
The safety of people crossing the bridge will be taken care of, as well as the navigability of the River Guadiana, so that «the bridge will be open in some periods, but will have to close temporarily in others, to allow circulation».
In addition to the security measures that the structure itself will integrate, there will also be a strong presence of the Portuguese Maritime Authority and its Spanish counterpart, which will send resources to the site, in order to regulate navigation and also carry out security surveillance on the river.
These two entities played a leading role in the entire process, as only their authorization will make it possible for the bridge to be installed. In this way, Alcoutim was in talks with entities that have jurisdiction over the Guadiana, from Portugal and Spain, having received the green light to move forward with his idea.
The installation of this bridge was the way Alcoutim found to attract even more audiences, on both sides of the border, to this event with the seal of the 365 Algarve program, which intends to revisit and celebrate the past of this border county, where smuggling occupied, at one point, a prominent place. Despite being an activity with a strong commercial (and illegal) bias, smuggling was also a promoter of cultural exchanges between Portugal and Spain, an aspect that will be explored in this festival, as the name of the initiative suggests.
If the enthusiasm shown by the nearby San Lúcar do Guadiana, the Spanish town that exists on the other side of the Guadiana, opposite Alcoutim, serves as a reference, the Festival of Contraband will be able to count on many visitors from the neighboring country. San Lúcar will take advantage of the installation of the bridge to join the event and «propose a program complementary to ours».
“There is an effective articulation and an active participation of San Lúcar in the festival. we compete to 365 Algarve, which does not include cross-border projects. But they also got regional support, from the Spanish side, and are going to move forward with their own programming for those days», revealed Osvaldo Gonçalves.
According to the mayor alcoutenejo, there has been "intensive collaboration" between the municipality of the Northeast of Algarve and its Spanish neighbor, which has had "a fundamental role in organizing the festival" and will help Alcoutim to publicize the event.
As for the festival's schedule, it has not yet been released, but it will be closely linked to the Alcouteneja cultural heritage. According to Osvaldo Gonçalves, there will be no lack of «historical recreations from the golden period of smuggling, guaranteed by extras, where there will be no lack of smugglers, but also the fiscal guard».
In other words, whoever goes to Alcoutim on the last weekend of March will “dive” into the river of memory, but with the possibility of keeping their feet dry while crossing the Guadiana River on foot.
To achieve all this, Alcoutim will invest «about 130 thousand euros», an amount that includes both the festival's program itself and the installation of the bridge. «As part of the application we made to 365 Algarve, we will have a contribution from the Tourism Region of around 87 thousand euros», added Osvaldo Gonçalves.
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