The Monchique Hiking Festival, which was supposed to take place from the 10th to the 12th of June, has just been canceled due to the forecast of «very high» or «maximum» fire risk for that county.
Contacted by Sul Informação, the mayor of Monchique confirmed the cancellation of the Festival, explaining that, «with the entry into force of Law 82, the development of activities of this type in forest areas is prohibited when the situation is of maximum or very high risk, which is now the case».
The mayor refers to decree-law 82/2021, which establishes the Integrated Management System for Rural Fires in the mainland and defines its operating rules.
«Most of the hikes take place in forest territory», he added, so «it could not be the Chamber, which organizes the festival, to set a bad example».
Paulo Alves revealed that the Monchique Chamber is now «talking to partners», namely the Algarve Tourism Region, the Algarve Tourism Association and the Almargem Association, «to explain the situation to them».
The Festival will now be scheduled for another date, probably for October. But the mayor Paulo Alves told our newspaper that, as it is predictable that situations of this type could happen again, “in the future, we will have to set a new date at another time of the year”, when it is not to expect so much heat.
«In inland territories, like Monchique, in addition to everything else, we still have to deal with other restrictions», he concluded.
The Monchique Hiking Festival is an event integrated in the annual calendar of AWS – Algarve Walking Season, a regional project to jointly promote hiking festivals in the Algarve, and in the Project “Revitalize Monchique – Tourism as a catalyst“, financed by Turismo de Portugal.
The Festival, promoted by the Municipality of Monchique, has as co-promoters the Algarve Tourism Region, the Algarve Tourism Association and the Almargem Association.
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