The arrival of Spring is celebrated, from the 26th of March to the 1st of April, in the Southwest of Portugal, with the 3rd edition of ID Week, an initiative of the Associação Rota Vicentina which aims to affirm and disseminate the identity of the Alentejo and Vicentina Coast in its various dimensions.
Under the motto “Think, visit and celebrate the Southwest”, ID Week proposes a sustainable journey between nature, heritage, culture, people and landscape, where the local community and project partners are invited to participate in the construction of the program.
Over the last few years, Rota Vicentina has promoted this networking, giving rise to an annual event that brings together, in seven days, much of what the region has to offer throughout the year.
Marta Cabral, president of Rota Vicentina Association, explains that “ID Week is not a festival, it does not have headliners, it does not transform this region into anything that it is not all year round. We just challenge those we know to prepare the best that the Southwest has to offer, in terms of tourism”.
ID Week starts on the 26th of March, symbolically at km 0 of the Rota Vicentina, in Santiago do Cacém, and ends on the 1st of April, in the village of Sabóia, in the interior of the municipality of Odemira, in a festive atmosphere, with a music meeting and traditional dance, the “E vai Balho”.
Throughout the territory and throughout the week, the program proposals are diverse, with activities mainly outdoors that include landscape interpretation and conservation walks, meditative or drawn, beach cleaning actions, boat trips on the Mira river or in Lagos, birdwatching and cycling in various parts of the region.
Opportunity also to discover or learn more about biodiversity and rewilding and get to know some pioneering projects in the area of conservation and environmental regeneration.
In the list of ID Week activities, there will also be guided tours to meet local producers and artisans, as well as gastronomic shows, in addition to the dynamics of integral cooperatives and a meeting of community catalysts.
In the artistic field, there is also a tribute to Liberdade Sobral, a sculptor and ceramist from the region, but there is also a place for concerts, exhibitions and the showing of documentaries where territory and identity are protagonists.
During this week, several accommodations add specific programs to the usual accommodation offer, which include guided walks or wine tasting.
Families with children can enjoy children's theater and puppet building workshops.
Not to be missed: the opening to the public of Forte do Pessegueiro, exclusively during ID week.
On the 31st of March, highlight for the seminar “Tourism: a barometer of sustainability in rural territories”. This meeting brings together public entities and specialists from various areas to discuss the relationship between tourism and the (integrated) occupation of the territory, the landscape, the agricultural and forestry mosaic, the local and circular economy, never forgetting the communities.
The complete schedule of ID Week (constantly updated) can be consulted by clicking here.
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