Preparations for "one of the largest exhibitions of wines" are underway by Lagoa council which is hosting the exhibition at the under-used Arade Congress Centre in Parchal this Easter.
"As Lagoa has one of the region’s high quality wine producers, which has won all kinds of regional, national and international awards, Lagoa Council’s mayor, Francisco Martins and his team feel satisfaction and pride in hosting the Lagoa Wine Show," according to the publicity.
The show will run on the 2nd to the 4th of April, and the organisers say that as the exhibition is over Easter, thousands of tourists will be in the Algarve, many of them in the Lagoa area and can enjoy artists including Áurea, Ana Moura, Pedro Abrunhosa and something called DJ Poppy.
The wine show is being organised by the council in partnership with the Algarve Wine Route and is intended to represent a "tribute to farmers, consumers and all of those working in a region with a product that is one of the main reference points of the city."
The exhibition will host regional wine producers along with regional food, wine accessories, debates, lectures and music.
As the council is one of the owners of the Arade Congress Centre it is hoped that the costs can be kept to a minimum as 'Lagoa' and 'event hosting' do not sit well together on any balance sheet.
Lagoa council’s commercial offshoot Fatasul is still grappling with a ratepayer backed accumulated loss of €700,000 for its annual Fatacil show.
In November 2013, Francisco Martins said the organising company Fatasul was to undergo a full audit covering the past three years in an attempt to bring some clarity to the accumulated debt and to look at sensible ways forward.
Lagoa council pushed ahead with the Fatacil fair last summer but has not released audited figures. If the Wine Fair also loses money, the council will have more explaining to do in its annual report.
