This year's edition of FATACIL, the trades, craft and music event in Lagoa which ended on Sunday, was visited by more than 170,000 visitors.
In the last three days, over 70,000 people went through the gate with 25,000 going on Friday to see Xutos & Pontapés perform.
The mayor of Lagoa, Francisco Martins, said the quality and variety of exhibitors this year was one of the reasons for the success of Fatacil 2017 and he praised the "excellent work of all the people involved in the organisation."
Previous years' attendance figures have been vastly inflated, in 2014 the council's events company claimed that it had 'lost count', so it will be important for the mayor to release accurate numbers when presenting the Fatacil 2017 accounts.
Martins took the opportunity to launch a project to redevelop the Fatacil site in a multi-million euro project that will turn the Lagoa venue into an all-year-round events area.
One reader was not so impressed with the fireworks: "In a summer when Portugal has been suffering its worst forest fires for many years, when lives have been lost, property destroyed and many firemen injured, the Camara de Lagoa saw fit to spend a large amount of money on fireworks to mark the end of Fatacil. Lagoa is not Dubai. It is not a wealthy oil state. Why waste money on pretty fireworks when dedicated firemen on low wages are risking their lives daily? The Camara de Lagoa would have gained the respect of the whole country if this money had been donated instead to those brave individuals." G.B.
Over in Loulé last Saturday, the White Night drew "more than 80,000 people" dressed, not surprisingly, in white.
40 musical performances kept visitors entertained in the back streets of the old city which is an attractive and popular venue for the White Night that Loulé council claims to have invented.
For the mayor of Loulé, Vítor Aleixo, the White Night was his council's last big event of a the summer season,
"This initiative has once again been a huge success, responding in the best way to immense expectations from the public. I am convinced that these thousands of people were very satisfied with what they saw and with everything different that they experienced. This is what makes Loulé’s White Night a unique national event."
Aleixo added that on a night that saw the city full to bursting, there were no incidents, “this highlights the preparation work carried out by the security forces in close collaboration with the organisers.”
The region now faces another off-season run of Algarve365 events, a cultural programme that ‘complements the traditional offer of the region with presentations of music, dance, theater, exhibitions, animation of heritage, gastronomy and cinema.’
The last big summer festival takes place in Faro on September 1st and 2nd in the historic centre of the city.
Festival F promises "a strong focus on Portuguese music, which presents itself in several stages throughout the city, this event of arts and culture includes other aspects such as cinema, stand-up comedy, musical and political gatherings, painting, literature, crafts, street animation and street food. Festival F also includes a special program dedicated to children and a ticket policy designed for families."
Lagoa Municipal Park project
The proposed Municipal Urban Park of Lagoa will replace the current Fatacil showground and bring new life and identity to the heart of the city and to the historic fair.
The current space is a block to traffic and to the growth of the city and Fatacil has outgrown the space available.
The idea is to design an area that provides a symbiosis between public green space, an events and sports venue can cohabit in a lively and dynamic way throughout the year.
The new Lagoa Municipal Urban Park is designed in a system of different kinds of surfacing that creates a vast green spot of open landscape, shade, water, rest, leisure and sports.
The zone is for Fatacil and for other events such as the weekly market.
A new restaurant is planned for the centre of the new park and a new public building faces the EN125, helping to define urbanistically the border. This building will be a an office for Fatacil, an auditorium and press room, a ticket office, toilets, warehouse and information.
"The project responds to an old ambition of Lagoa council, to have a park for the city and for families to enjoy 365 days a year and not only for the ten days of the annual fair. This is a very large gap that Lagoa has," said Francisco Martins, mayor of Lagoa.
As indicated in his presentation, the future park will occupy the area where Fatacil currently takes place and will involve an investment in the order of €7 million over three years.
"We do not want to jeopardise the fair and, much less, compromise the finances of the Council. We have a municipality to manage and we can not spend the whole budget at once on just one project," explained the mayor, adding that, now the architectural project has been carried out, the drafting of the specifications and the opening of the International public tender can go ahead.
"But I would like the first phase to be completed by 2018," added Francisco Martins.
The project is ambitious so the city council will be alert to possible community aid, for example for energy efficiency.
"For 20 years we have been talking about this and finally we have taken a step forward to respond to one of the longings Lagoa’s population.
