The return of the Açoteia Festival, in July, of South Music, in June, and the Baixa Street Fest, in the summer, as well as exhibitions by names like Manuel Baptista and Nadir Afonso. These are some of the highlights of the cultural program in Faro for this year, presented this Monday, February 27th.
Above all, there is, this year, a «resumption of a set of initiatives that we had to keep at a standstill because of the pandemic and the war», as explained by Bruno Inácio, head of the Culture division at the Câmara de Faro.
Thus, for example, Açoteia, South Music and Baixa Street Fest will return, in the usual way.
Added to this is the commitment to major initiatives such as the F Festival (7th to 9th September) and the Motard Concentration, but also to other events such as “Os Dias do Jazz”, in May, at Teatro das Figuras, “Figures à Rampa”, in July, for emerging bands, or the cycle of concerts on the barrier islands.
This year, after Capitão Fausto (2020) and Branko (2021), the guest will be the Algarvian Dino d'Santiago who will give shows, in the summer, in places like Culatra.
At the Municipal Museum, two major exhibitions stand out: one on the work of Manuel Baptista, an illustrious painter from Faro, which will open in June, and another on Nadir Afonso, towards the end of the year.
Already at the Municipal Library, Primavera Literária will return, which is part of the Book Fair of Faro (June 1st to 4th), but also the António Ramos Rosa National Poetry Prize, which will be awarded in October.
In addition to these events, there will be many more, promoted by cultural associations in the Algarve capital, such as Folkfaro, the Algarve International Organ Festival, the Algarve Design Meeting, the Faro Blues, the Academic Week of the Algarve or BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Art.
Despite having fallen by the wayside in the desire to be the European Capital of Culture, Faro does not want to stop investing in this strategic sector.
"It's hard to look Faro and not thinking of a city or municipality with a perspective of development based on culture and creativity», Bruno Inácio told journalists.
«The candidacy process for European Capital of Culture has shown a lot of this and these initiatives are the mirror of that, seeking, through them, to break down barriers and seek new audiences», he added.
One of the novelties this year is the fact that the Chamber of Faro be reformulating the regulation to support associativism. For Bruno Inácio, there will be the «possibility of biennial or triennial support, two and three years», something that is «rare in the country».
This brings more «stability to a group of professional agents who are looking for a professionalization phase, which is difficult to achieve, when moving from amateur logic to professional logic», he explained.
After a difficult 2022 – the “worst” since he became mayor – Rogério Bacalhau, mayor, guarantees that this year will be “certainly better than last year”.
“We already have everything organized. We know what each of the entities is going to do and we already have guaranteed funding for all of this », she explained.
The commitment to have 10% of the municipal budget allocated to culture also remains.
«When we say that we are going to have 10% of the budget for culture, people think that we are investing in Festival F, in FolkFaro, but this is in general terms: there is a budget for the library, for the museum, for cultural facilities, and we account for all of this as the culture budget», concluded the mayor.
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