Loulé’s ecological carnival is inspired by Marcelo for the ‘Selfie Circus’

The Loulé Carnival will take on an ecological aspect for the first time this year, taking to the streets between Sunday and Tuesday under the theme ‘Circo Selfie’, an allusion to the ‘selfies’ popularized by the President of the Republic.

“For the first time we will have ecological cups, which will be used for people drinking in the carnival grounds, are made of paper and reusable, three or four times, and there will be plastic straws. These glasses will then go through a process of composting to be used in agriculture, “said Aleixo, mayor of Loulé.

In addition to the introduction of ecological cups in the carnival grounds, the mayor also highlighted the fact that several of the materials used in the parade are reused in one of the oldest corsets in the country and it is the main tourist attraction in the Algarve at this time of year.

“More important than reducing costs, is contributing to the urgent need to reduce materials that cause major damage to the environment, such as plastic. These practices are increasingly present in the decisions of the municipality and this year the carnival also does not escape this, “he said.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa inspires the theme and is one of the protagonists of this edition of the Carnival of Loulé, here portrayed in one of the floats to the hitchhiking of a truck, a satire to his recent trip between Lisbon and Porto to hear the concerns of the truckers.

The President’s habit of taking pictures with his cell phone and the circus arts inspires Circo Selfie, the theme of this year’s Corsican, in which 14 floats will be paraded.

With an investment of 350 thousand euros, the Avenida José da Costa Mealha, known as the “Loulean Sambadrome”, will be occupied by close to 600 people, including clowns, jugglers, trapeze artists, and many circus people.

“There was a re-use of parts of the body of some of last year’s Carnival figures, and since everything is not produced by us, it meant a saving of over 100 thousand euros. But the cars are all different this year, and we have the Brazilian girl painted or uncensored political satire, “explained Paulo Madeira, known as ‘Palhó’, artistic coordinator of the corso.

After 23 years preparing for the Carnival parade, there are not many secrets for ‘Palhó’, who coordinates a team of more than 50 people, including blacksmiths, carpenters, screen printers, plastic artists, electricians, mechanics or the group of women responsible for Placing colorful paper flowers on cars.

“The Carnival of Loulé is the result of the work of many people for two and a half months and little is changed from year to year. The size of cars, which were previously very large, is smaller and now we choose to make more dolls. of materials also makes the Carnival has evolved for the better, in addition to maintaining the tradition of the flower, “he said.

As traditionally, the flowers are placed by a group of women, this year thirteen in all, as explained Libânia Coelho, the oldest collaborator, who has worked on the decoration of the cars of the Carnival of Loulé for two decades.

“The first work is done by the men who build the cars, then the decoration is in the hands of the women, there are people who make the flowers at home, others come from the outside, or are made and placed here in the workshops. happy when we see the decorated cars, “he said.

With political satire as its main ingredient, the Loulé Carnival also features dancers from samba schools, animation groups, big-headed, gigantones, and other artists, who will join for three days in the main artery of the city.

The parade runs between 15:00 and 17:30. The tickets cost two euros and all ticket receipts are in favor of solidarity institutions of the municipality and the associative movement that participates in the corso.