La Festa de Sao Joao

After being chased by bulls in Ponte de Lima as we described in the previous post, we have decided to head back to the lovely Porto for a bit of normality - or so we thought! Little did we know...

The reason for our return to Porto was the fact that La Festa de Sao Joao was going on and we wanted to join in the festivities. The festival, the most important one in the city's agenda, is extremely popular in Portugal, but little known outside of the country, which we found surprising given that it is probably one of the biggest street festivals in Europe. Plus, it has been celebrated for over six hundred years.

La Festa takes place for several weeks in May-June, in honour of Sao Joao (Saint John), who is said to be the patron saint of lovers. During these weeks churches proudly display to visitors altars and artwork celebrating the saint. There are boat races down the Douro river, as well as other competitive events. The streets of Porto are also becoming more festive, as houses and neighbourhoods are being decorated in preparation for the big night, the night of 23rd June, the Night of Sao Joao (Saint John).

This is when the streets of Porto are filling with seemingly crazy people, armed with plastic hammers, garlic flowers and leeks, which are used to give passers by friendly smacks on the head! We must have got literally hundreds of smacks on the head, some more friendly than others, based on the sobriety of the giver! Although the festival has been going on for centuries, no one really knows when the custom of hitting people on the head originated and why, although it is somehow related with a plastic manufacturer, go figure.

He means business!

Anyway, there is more to the festival than head-smacking and, as previously mentioned, it is one of Europe's biggest street festival. Throughout the night, the streets of Porto are full of people of all ages, which makes it a family festival, and for that so much better. There are street concerts, lots of places to grab a bite (grilled sardines is a - very yummy - tradition), music blasts out of every corner and there are thousands of Chinese lanterns lit and sent off into the sky.

Concert stage, dancing on the street

Lighting a lantern

Street barbeque

One of the highlights of the festival is the fireworks display that lights up the Douro river. At midnight a massive fireworks show is prepared, a show which attracts a big crowd. Although the fireworks could be considered the main feature of the festa, the party is not even nearly over. Once the display is over, people of all ages resume their party-ing until 3-4 in the morning, with the youngsters taking it even further by waiting for the sunrise over the river.

Large crowd of people

Fireworks!

Unfortunately we were way too tired after a long day of travels so after the fireworks we went back to the concert stage but as the music was not to our liking we went back to our hotel room, which looked like this:

Nice hotel room

PS. We didn't pay for that room, we paid for a cheap room, however, due to a mix up in the booking process that was the only room they had. If only all mess-ups were like this!