Dozens of walks, some of them new, workshops, educational activities, gastronomy and even nightlife are part of the Ameixial Hiking Festival program, which will take place between the 26th and 28th of April in this mountain parish in the municipality of Loulé.
In 2024, the event will have «around 50 activities, with several special themed walks for families», but there will be a reduction in the number of initiatives that will be promoted, especially because «it ends up being a bit demanding to have human resources to manage everything» , told the Sul Informação João Ministro, from ProActiveTur, who organizes this event Cooperative for the Development of Low Density Territories (QRER) in partnership with the Estela Project.
On the 26th, a Friday, «there will be two walks, as is normal, one in the afternoon and one in the evening».
«This year, we will try to give a different twist to the night walk and make it more interactive with the village community. We are preparing different interactions, to make this walk a little more lively, with tastings of local products», revealed João Ministro.
«From Saturday onwards, we will have the usual program of walks, some of which are new. We will try to introduce some new walks, also linked to other villages», in addition to Ameixial, namely the village of Cavalos e Besteiros.
For the 27th, Saturday, twenty walks are scheduled. On Sunday, there will be 15.
The complete program now can be consulted here, but registrations for the 2024 edition will only open on Monday, March 18th, and can be made on the festival website.
Anyone who wants to stay overnight in Ameixial will once again be able to go glamping, which is, in essence, a way of camping in comfort.
Although the event will take place between the 26th and 28th, «it will be possible to do glamping as soon as the 25th of April holiday», even if there are no activities planned.
In 2024, as in previous editions, the general theme of the event will once again be Writing from the Southwest, an ancient heritage of Serra do Caldeirão, with a strong expression in Ameixial.
In this field, in addition to the fact that interventions in the landscape carried out in other editions of the event, with the signature of artists such as Sara Navarro and Leonor Pego, can still be visited, «the stories linked to the village» and intangible and traditional knowledge will continue to be associated with hiking and other activities.
Then we also have Writing of the Southwest, with a new trail. We already did part of it last year. It is a very different place than usual, which is not very close to Ameixial», according to Pedro Barros, from Projeto Estela.
As for walks associated with heritage, there will be proposals “linked to the traditional architecture of the Serra and prehistory, with megalithic monuments. We will also repeat the walk with historian Luís Palma, who will tell stories about the village,” he added.
«We will also continue to have leisure initiatives, with massages, vegetarian food, activities for children, for families. We will continue to have yoga, we will have dancing, music and activities with special guests», said, for his part, João Ministro.
As for workshops, «this year we wanted to bring a topic that we think is interesting, which has to do with trail maintenance. As you know, there are many trails that are built, but then the issue of maintenance falls a bit short. Therefore, we invited Rota Vicentina, which will hold a small workshop, on Saturday, to explain how they do this work».
There will also be a dance workshop.
As usual, walkers can book the activities they want, some of which have a participant limit. Registration, as has been the case in recent years, costs 10 euros and gives access to all activities.
Promoted by Cooperativa QRER and organized by Proactivetur and Projecto Estela, the Ameixial Walking Festival (or Walking Festival Ameixial) has the support of the Chambers of Loulé and Almodôvar, the Algarve Tourism Region, the Ameixial Parish Council and Grupo Desportivo Ameixialense;
O Sul Informação, the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests and the Portuguese Environment Agency are partners in the initiative.
The event is part of the Algarve Walking Season festival network, recently reactivated.
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