It is only for three days, but at the end of this week Alcoutim and Sanlúcar del Guadiana will be linked once again in what noticiasaominuto calls “an ode to contraband”.
The two communities ‘united and separated’ by the Guadiana River will be celebrating their not-so-distant ‘murky past’, in which all kinds of produce and activities passed under the wire very often under cloak of darkness.
To add to the atmosphere, a floating pedestrian footbridge will be constructed, enabling people to pass from one side of the river to the other. From Portugal to Spain in other words.
There will be talks, demonstrations, workshops and handicrafts on sale, as well as lots of local gastronomy, dance and musical performances.
The festival is supported by the government, Turismo de Portugal, the Algarve’s tourism authority RTA and 365 Algarve, the programme designed to attract visitors to year-round activities in the Algarve.
There will be walks laid on, stories about contraband, a photography exhibition and races.
See Alcoutim’s council’s website: http://cm-alcoutim.pt/pt/pt/agenda/3028/festival-do-contrabando.aspx for further details.
The event is open to everyone, with admission free – and joining in the fun will be the Algarve’s famous caravela, the Boa Esperança, which brought smiles to many faces on one of its last ‘flag flying’ visits to Spain when it overshot its mooring and crashed into a pedestrian bridge (click here).
