Festival Termómetro, a competition for the revelation of new bands organized by radio host and television presenter Fernando Alvim, will be presented at Teatro das Figuras, in Faro, this Friday, December 21 at 21:30 pm.
The Algarve capital hosts the last session of the festival which, this year, toured the country, passing through Ponta Delgada, Porto, Cascais, Viseu, Lisbon, Aveiro, Funchal and Évora.
This change in philosophy ended up benefiting the bands. “The fact that we left the circuit of bars and went to the theaters, improved the way the bands sound and the attention that the public dedicates to them. We are satisfied with what we are building. It's not something for the moment, but let's get people to realize that this is a festival of new bands, which is worth knowing. Spectators may even have the opportunity to watch, for the first time, the performance of groups that may become iconic», says Fernando Alvim to Musical|Sul Informação.
Em Faro, make themselves known to Russa and Maro, both Portuguese bands, and the Belgian Jaguar Jaguar.
Russa was born in Ribatejo and, since reaching maturity, has moved more than 10 times, having lived in five different countries, including Russia. He embraced rap at age 22 and, after some amateur projects, released, in March 2018, his first album.
Maro is the stage name of Mariana Secca, a multi-instrumentalist, singer and author. He studied at Berklee College of Music, currently living in Los Angeles. This year, he launched his first work divided into three chapters.
From Antwerp come the Belgian Jaguar Jaguar, who graduated on a two-week trip to Spain and some of the members have already been present at this festival.
Over the years, the Thermometer Festival has passed through several cities, but I had never come to the Algarve. For Fernando Alvim, decentralization is a trend.
“I think the word of the year is decentralization. If we want an increasingly united country, we can't just focus on a city or two, we have to “distribute game”. With the festival I think the same way. We had the support of the Municipal Councils. Otherwise it would have been impossible. Thus, we were able to go to cities where we had never been, such as Faro», explains Fernando Alvim
The festival's mentor says that all the City Councils realized the purpose of the Thermometer and had no refused support, despite being a festival that will never have a large audience “because they are bands that people don't even know!”.
As a festival that seeks to show new national talents, this one does not close the door to outsiders and, already twice, foreign bands have won: the Belgian Soldier's Heart, in 2015, and the German Black Taxis, in 2011. 
The opening to the exterior took place in the 15th edition, with the aim of expanding the festival and giving it greater scope. The balance of the decision turned out to be positive. «I think it didn't harm, on the contrary, it made it more interesting, in terms of content and exchange of experiences. National bands and bands that come from other countries win” says Fernando Alvim.
The physical internationalization of the festival to another country is also being considered: «It is quite possible that the Festival will expand, for the year, to another country», reveals the radio host.
Over the 24 years of the festival's existence, many national bands have passed through Termómetro and today are known names such as Ornatos Violeta, B Fachada, Capicua, Dj Ride, Mazgani, Ana Bacalhau, David Fonseca, Noiserv, Richie Campbell, Salto, Tatanka, or fourth-quarter (last edition winners).
On January 12th, the five finalists will be invited to make a final presentation, in the great hall of Cinema São Jorge, in Lisbon. The award is a “ramp to stardom”: the winners have guaranteed concerts in the next editions of NOS Alive, Bons Sons and Iberian Festival Awards, in addition to recording a video and have access to 20 hours of studio recording.
The event lasts for two hours and admission is free, subject to room capacity. However, ticket collection is mandatory and limited to four tickets per person.
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