Festa do Avante!
Every year, in the first weekend of September (since 1976) takes part a gigantic festival, the Avante! Festival (Portuguese: Festa do Avante!) named after the official newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party. After taking part in different locations around Lisbon, like the FIL Park, Ajuda or Loures, it is now carried out in Amora, a town near Seixal in a ground bought by the Party after a massive fundraising campaign in the early 90s. The campaign was considered by the Party as a the only way to avoid the boycott organised by the owners of the previous festivals grounds, that culminated in 1987 with the festival not being carried out after 11 editions. The festival is usually visited and participated in by hundreds of thousands of people, making the outside of the ground seem a gigantic camping park. The party itself consists of a three day festival of music, with the participation of hundreds of Portuguese and international bands and artists in five different stages, ethnography, gastronomy, debates, a book & music fair, theatre (Avanteatro) and sporting events. Several foreign communist parties also participate.
In 27 editions, the Festival counted with the presence of several famous artists, either Portuguese or foreign, like Chico Buarque, Zeca Afonso, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Holly Near, the Soviet Circus Company, the Kuban Cossacks Choir, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Manoel de Oliveira and others.
The preparation of the party begins right after the end of the previous party. Hundreds of the party's members and friends, mostly young people, volunteer for the hard work of building a small town in a few months.
External links
Categories: Communist press festivals