A new hiking festival will be born in Lagos in November. The Barão de São João forest will be the central location of the event that the association Almargem has already started to organize, where, in addition to walks and contact with nature, space will be given to sweets, handicrafts and local artists.
O Sul Informação spoke with Anabela Santos, from Almargem, who pointed out the first days of November as the probable date for the festival. “In principle, it will take place between the 1st and 4th of November. We will still confirm, but in the beginning, it will be on those days», he said.
«The base will be the Barão de São João forest, but we will not focus only on this area. The idea is to spread activities all over the parish», according to Anabela Santos.
At the moment, the preparation of the festival is still at a very preliminary stage. But what will be its philosophy is already well defined, in the minds of its organizers.
“We're not just going to have walks. We will also have workshops and we will try to link the festival to the local sweets. There are also many artisans and artists in the area, including Deodato Santos, who has sculptures scattered throughout the forest. We are going to try to get these people to do themed tours, cultural initiatives and workshops related to crafts and gastronomy», said Anabela Santos.
As for the routes themselves, Via Algarviana will play an important role, bearing in mind that "it is a resource that already exists there" and was created as part of a project coordinated by Almargem, an entity that continues to manage the pedestrian and cycling route that crosses the interior of the Algarve.
«We have already thought of a small route that passes through Via Algarviana. It will be possible to play with a lot of things», said Anabela Santos, speaking to Sul Informação.
This festival is one of the Algarve Walking Season (AWS), a project launched this year to promote the region as a tourist destination for walking. This initiative had its official start last weekend, at the Alcoutim and Sanlúcar de Guadiana Hiking Festival, which make up this season of festivals together with their counterparts in Ameixial and Lagos.
Moreover, illustrated Anabela Santos, the appearance of a new festival is linked to the launch of the Algarve Walking Season. «There were already two festivals, one in Sotavento and the other in Algarve Central, and the idea was to create one in the Barlavento Algarvio, which did not yet exist. With the creation of this calendar, there was the opportunity to launch this new event. Without AWS, it would probably not happen, at least for now, the creation of a new festival in this area of the region».
With the creation of this hiking season, the offer of festivals was structured, spreading them over different seasons of the year. Although this year the Alcoutim festival took place in spring, next year it should happen in winter – this year it was scheduled for the beginning of March, but was eventually postponed due to bad weather in the region.
Between the 27th and 29th of April the Walking Festival Ameixial will take place, in this village in the municipality of Loulé, the Spring initiative. The Lagos festival will always take place in autumn.
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