Amplifest finally returned, and so did we.
The pandemic meant that Amplifest, an eclectic music festival, was put on hold, more than one time. Meaning that 2022 would be the grand return to Hard Club, its traditional venue in …
Young Men’s Festival of Grijó de Parada
In January 2020 I was in Salsas, near Bragança, photographing one of the last winter solstice festivities of Trás-Os-Montes. I had been around the region since Christmas, as I’d done in previous years, and was about to return south, …
A Slow Summer…
As the 2021 version of lock-down is hopefully getting closer to a loosening to the restrictions here in Portugal, and maybe trying to anticipate what my upcoming months might be, I’m looking back to the aftermath of the 2020 version …
The Purifying Fire
At Vila Boa, a village in the municipality of Vinhais on a slope of the Nogueira hills, the masks, bagpipes and all the things common to the pagan festivities of the Northeastern Portugal can also be found. There a festivity …
Demons of New Year
There are many Winter traditions in Trás-Os-Montes that, like so many in Europe, go all the way back to the pre-christian Winter Solstice celebrations. Without going into much details, because are too complex for me to explain well enough, these …
Festa dos Rapazes, or Young Men’s Festival – Ousilhão
On December 26, Saint Stephen day (the saint that brings this pagan festivity to the catholic realm), four young men wearing hats and colorful scarfs start the day by knocking on the houses at Ousilhão, a small village in the …