At the Algarve Walking Festival, there are those who come, but there are also the memories of those who lived there more than two millennia ago and what is left by others for the future. The Walking Festival Ameixial starts tomorrow, April 28th, and will feature a strong cultural and entertainment program, starting at Escrita do Sudoeste, to which the event was associated from the beginning, but which also includes music, artistic installations, heritage and, of course, the typical gastronomy of Serra do Caldeirão.
It is, moreover, through the stomach that the organizers of the Walking Festival begin to “conquer” visitors. Tomorrow, after the opening conference, scheduled for 15 pm, in Loulé, the participants of the event will be received at Ameixial with a grain dinner, which will be served in the pavilion of Grupo Desportivo Ameixialense (GDA) and cooked by the experienced cooks at Café Central.
From here, and until May 1st, culture will be present at various moments of the event, from the walks. In 2017, there will be the usual trips to sites of archaeological interest, discovering the peoples who have inhabited this mountainous territory over the centuries, with a strong focus on writing in the Southwest, the first form of writing in the Iberian Peninsula.
It was in her that Sara Navarro was inspired to make the artistic intervention «Landscape and Memory», in the 2016 edition of the WFA, giving «a unique opportunity» to those who attended the Festival, to participate «in large-scale painting from an anamorphic perspective (image “deformed” that presents itself noticeable in a certain position)», according to the organizers of the Walking Festival. The result of this work will not only inspire one of the proposed walks, but will also be presented in a script and video.
In 2017, Sara Navarro returns to be present at the WFA, where she will promote participatory experiences in public art, on Saturday and Sunday, at 15:00 pm.
«The idea of (re)creation of archaeological cultural heritage into artistic cultural heritage is also present in a sculptural project by the artist Angela Menezes and that complements the traveling street archeology exhibition “Who writes us from the mountains”. The exhibition on stelae with writing from the Southwest and the Iron Age can be visited at any time or during guided tours by the ESTELA Project», adds the festival's organization. In the latter case, visits take place on April 29th and 30th, at 18:00h.
The dissemination of mountain heritage, whether architectural or intangible cultural, will also be done through walks. One of the routes passes through houses in the Serra do Caldeirão, with the aim of drawing attention to the importance of the lime used inside the houses. This is the material that will be used in the rehabilitation of Fonte dos Barreiros, in an initiative to which Festival participants are invited to join (Saturday and Sunday, 15 pm).
In the Intangible Cultural Heritage, there are visits to places linked to the local imagination, called “Rocha do Diabo”, as well as a walk along the Caminhos de Santiago in the Central Algarve and a night trip between Ameixial and Loulé, where hikers will arrive in time for “Grande Feast” of the Sovereign Mother, “the biggest religious manifestation in the south of the country”.
Another richness of the mountain, its people and customs, has not been forgotten. The program includes activities that will take participants to know the day-to-day life of Pastor Leonel, how Mr. Orlando, a local beekeeper, or the medicinal and gastronomic uses of some of the plants that mountain hikers come across, in a workshop dynamized by the naturopath João Beles. Along the way, there are many locals and stories to discover, like Dona Otília and her white chicken.
After walking, it's always good to relax. And this is where the planned cultural entertainment suggestions come into play. In its 5th edition, the Algarve Walking Festival has a musical program that integrates an international group, the Italians Anonymous Nuvolari, which perform Saturday night at Fonte da Seiceira, where a mountain barbecue with a fire will also take place. On that day, Loulé Vitorino Pires will also perform.
On Sunday, the 30th of April, the eve of the holiday, the group «Pijon» and Isabel Duarte perform a concert and promote a workshop of songs from around the world, in the same place, from 21:30 pm.
The complete program can be found on the website of Algarve Hiking Festival, through which interested parties can also register for the event.
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