Pampilhosa da Serra festival challenges audiences to clean water lines
The promoters of the sixth edition of the electronic music festival that takes place on the Pampilhosa da Serra river beach in August will challenge the festivals to help clean up water lines.
“In recent years, we have converted a portion of the festival’s revenue into reforestation with arbutus trees in some parts of the county. This year we want people to be able to work safely and help the local community clean up water lines,” said Jorge Custódio, of the organization of Seaside Sunset Sessions, a festival that takes place between 17 and 25 of August.
The deputy mayor of Pampilhosa da Serra pointed to the “very strong” environmental component of the festival and recalled that streams and other water lines in that municipality in the interior of the district of Coimbra were affected by the deposition of materials resulting from the fires of 2017, such as remains of pine trees “that burned and in the meanwhile rotted“.
The festival, which is sponsored by the local authority and sponsored by Seaside – the national footwear brand owned by businessman Acácio Teixeira – comes from a nine-day program of music, water sports, traditional games, classes group and other activities, on the river beach of Pampilhosa da Serra, in the village, near the river Unhais, one of the three beaches of the county distinguished with the Blue Flag.
On August 23rd and 24th, the two main days of the Seaside Sunset Sessions, the program includes a national and international dj poster with two “top names” of the undiscovered world music scene.
The remaining poster includes the project “I Love Baile Funk“, the duo of DJ and national producers Karetos, and DJ Kamala, Hugo Tobacco and Oskar DJ, who has been resident in the festival since the first edition and which marks the “surprise” of many festivals that sue Pampilhosa da Serra for the first time.
“Every year I see faces of amazement, of people who arrive there, at that place in the middle of the mountain, see a dance floor mounted in the middle of the river and says ‘I wish I had this in my city’,” told Óscar Teixeira.
It refers to a “very pleasant conjugation between day and night“, in a very pleasant space with a “clean” landscape and practically continuous activities “from three in the afternoon to five or six in the morning.”
The environmental component was even more marked “in great detail” last year when the Pampilhosa da Serra festival bet on the use of recyclable and personalized glasses for the event, he said.
“And the track is on top of the water and the surrounding ecological environment make a lot of difference,” says Óscar Teixeira, who usually works during the nine days “during the day“, sometimes with DJs invited by him, and who opens the first of the two main nights and closes the festival.
“I feel part of this family, I saw the festival grow from the first ideas and people’s positive feedback is seen year after year,” he notes.
Vice Mayor Jorge Custódio argues in this regard that Pampilhosa da Serra “may not have castles or monasteries” as tourist attractions, “but there is nature in its purest state.”
“And the festival clearly wants to captivate the young people in the interior of the country and tell them that they can also find a reference in terms of festivals here, in this increasingly fashionable interior,” he argued.
In addition to free camping by the river, available to all those who travel to Pampilhosa da Serra during the festival, the organization intends to limit the sale of tickets, after in 2018 about 18 thousand people have passed through the event over nine days.
“We do not want a mass festival that attracts as many people as possible. We want those who visit us to really have an extraordinary experience, without crowds, in a relaxed atmosphere and in contact with Nature,” said Jorge Custódio.
