Rota do Cante, presentations of works, talks and exhibitions mark this year’s Cante Fest, which opens on Friday to celebrate, in Lisbon and Serpa, the 4th anniversary of the classification of cante alentejano as a World Heritage Site.
The 4th Cante Fest will include initiatives in the Casa do Alentejo in Lisbon on Friday and in the historic centre of Serpa in the Beja district between Saturday and Tuesday.
According to Tomé Pires, mayor of Serpa, the promoter, Cante Fest will have a “new format” in the Alentejo city, as the initiatives will take place in the historic center and “open up more” to the general public.
In the first three editions, the Cante Fest was “a party of singing very directed to choral groups” and the initiatives took place in the Pavilion of Fairs and Exhibitions of Serpa, recalled.
In the logic of more openness to the public, the novelty is the Rota do Cante, with “informal” performances of 20 choral groups, in a total of more than 400 singers, in various places and establishments of the restoration of the historical centre of Serpa.
The route will take place in two sessions, one on Saturday and another on Sunday, from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., which will be followed by tasting and selling regional products in Largo Condes de Ficalho.
According to the mayor, the Cante Fest will continue to have a “more playful” side, with performances by choral groups, and another “more technical and academic”, with talks and presentations and launches of works on cante alentejano.
The 4th Cante Fest will start on Friday at 18:00 at the Casa do Alentejo in Lisbon, with the pre-launch of the collection “Cante Alentejano”, which includes four books and four CDs and is a partnership between the municipality and the newspaper Público, and performances of two choral groups.
On Saturday, already in Serpa, the Cante Fest will include, as of 14:30, at Casa do Cante, the pre-release of a CD of the group Singers of Pias, a show of videos produced under a protocol between the municipality and the project “The Portuguese Music to like her own”, a talk about Alentejo fashions and the presentation of the book “O Cante à Moda de Pias” by the Choral and Ethnographic Group, the Peasants of Pias.
Also on Saturday, in Serpa, in the Church of São Paulo, starting at 9.30 pm, there will be a concert of the Quintet of Strings and Two Voices of the Regional Conservatory of Baixo Alentejo.
Casa do Cante will also host several exhibitions during the Cante Fest, the “Cantar no Alentejo” and “Cancioneiro: Popular Modes of the Municipality of Serpa” and the “Cante Alentejano” collection on Sunday. of a conversation about “Sing in the Feminine”, on Monday.
The event will end on Tuesday with the celebration ceremony of the 4th anniversary of the classification of cante, from 18:00, at Casa do Cante, which will include the delivery of medals to five entities.
Cante alentejano, collective singing without instruments, was classified, on November 27, 2014, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, by UNESCO, thanks to an application presented by the Câmara de Serpa and the Regional Entity of Tourism of Alentejo and Ribatejo.
