A hiking festival, another dedicated to smuggling, where you can walk on the waters of the Guadiana, and a fair where hot bread is the main star are some of the events that will take place. Warm the municipality of Alcoutim, in March.
After starting the month with the Rural World Days, the Alcoutim Chamber is going to promote, from tomorrow until Sunday, the 6th edition of the hiking festival that it organizes in partnership with neighboring Sanlúcar de Guadiana, in Spain.
«Later, from the 29th to the 31st of March, we will have the Festival of Contraband, also in partnership with our Spanish neighbors. In between, we will have other initiatives, namely the Feira do Pão Quente, in Vaqueiros [on the 10th]. So, it's going to be warm, this month of March (laughs)», he told the Sul Informação Osvaldo Gonçalves, President of the Chamber of Alcoutim.
Tomorrow begins the Walking Festival, which will show you the trails, the beautiful landscapes, but also the customs and knowledge of Alcoutim and Sanlúcar.
The “Manhãs com o Pastor”, a classic of this festival, which will be repeated on Saturday and Sunday, will be joined by other walks, on either side of the river. And if some, such as the activities “Let's Walk and Make Bread” and “On the Route of the Flavors of the Pork”, are linked to traditional flavors and knowledge, there are also many that look at the cultural heritage of the two locations that host the event (see the full program here).
Nature Tourism, namely hiking, is already an activity with weight in Alcoutim's economy, assured the mayor of Alcoutenejo. The river, as a border, plays a very important role here.
«Everything we organize, which has to do with the sporting and cultural part, we always try to do in symbiosis with Spain. Because we are sure that, in this way, we will be much stronger, both we and them», explained Osvaldo Gonçalves.
In the case of walks, “it wouldn't make sense to do this any other way. Even if we didn't want to, this partnership would always have to exist. Because when we offer the trail, Spain offers the landscape and vice versa. We are all interested in having this close relationship and developing partnerships», believes the mayor.
Towards the end of the month, what is «an anchor event in Alcoutim» arrives, the Festival do Contraband, which, despite only going to its 3rd edition, is already a reference.
The main attraction of this festival is the temporary pedestrian bridge that is built over the Guadiana, connecting Alcoutim and Sanlúcar. In other words, for three days, it is possible to walk from Portugal to Spain, a possibility that has been taken advantage of by thousands of people.
«In terms of our experience, the improvements that we are always trying to introduce with each new edition have to do, above all, with the issue of the restoration, the layout of the little stores, always with the concern of never losing our identity the event», explained Osvaldo Gonçalves.
"We cherish the Smuggling Festival as something of our own, an anchor event for the county, and we were always concerned that, in this need to grow, to respond to the great demand, we would not lose that identity," he added.
And, since this is a partnership between two locations in two different countries, the growth of one is, equally, the growth of the other.
“What turns out to be the big news is the greater involvement on the part of our Spanish partners.
Sanlúcar has made a huge effort in terms of seeking funding, on the Spanish side, for this event, similar to what we have at “365Algarve”, without which it would not be possible to do something with this dimension», said the aedile alcoholic.
In 2019, Sanlúcar de Guadiana got support from the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Deputácion de Huelva, «which improves the conditions for them to participate in the party».
And, speaking of bridges, Osvaldo Gonçalves has not given up hope of seeing a bridge built to connect the two locations.
“We are always sensitizing the authorities in the sense that this bridge here in Alcoutim, even though it is pedestrian, will be a connection fuse that can greatly boost our potential, particularly in the Nature Tourism segment. If these two banks are connected, there will certainly be many more people passing through here and this will greatly help the local economy», believes the mayor of Alcoutim.
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