Vilarelhos Cross-Border Arts Festival
The village of Vilarelhos, in Alfândega da Fé, at the weekend, will host the PAN cross-border festival, which transforms the small town of Transmontana into a stage of art and culture with the involvement of the whole community.
The Cross-Border Festival of Poetry, Patrimony and Art of the Vanguard in Rural Environment – the PAN – takes place between Portugal and Spain and for the second year, Vilarenhos is the chosen place for, on the Portuguese side, the streets become “poetic tertúlias and the buildings in art galleries “between Friday and Sunday.
The PAN was born in the Spanish village of Morille in Salamanca 17 years ago and since 2015 is shared with a Portuguese locality with the purpose of bringing avant-garde art, poetry, music and culture to rural populations.
In this year’s edition, Morilhe hosts the festival between July 19 and 21 and Vilarelhos between Friday and Sunday.
According to the organization, “this is a unique initiative that aims to take art to rural territories of Portugal and Spain, promoting community involvement and the exhibition of artists from various areas, such as writing, painting, sculpture and the performative and audiovisual arts. ”
On the Portuguese side, local authorities take over the organization and, according to information released by the House of Customs of the Faith, will visit Vilarelhos, during three days, “24 poets, nine plastic artists and nine entities linked to cultural promotion.”
The event also offers “10 exhibitions patents in places like a loft and an old agricultural warehouse already in ruins, the property of the Junta de Freguesia, that these days gain a new life and an unexpected use”.
This year’s program has the theme “ECOARTE” and includes art workshops, book presentations and cultural projects, guided visits by artists to exhibitions, concerts and recitals of poetry.
The organization expects “more than a hundred people” only among those involved in the different activities.
