“We hope to exceed 100,000 visitors, the number reached in the 2019 edition, to taste this highlight of the city, in a year of recovery after the two-year break”, a source from the Câmara de Portimão, the event’s organiser, told Lusa.

The Sardine Festival takes place in the riverside area of ​​Portimão, where five restaurants will be set up, offering a serving of five sardines, potato, bread and an Algarve salad, for €9.50.

In addition to the five restaurants of the associative movement, the festival has the involvement of several restaurants in the city.

“Each restaurant commits to serving sardines during the five days of the event, but the price is set by each one,” noted the source.

The event also includes exhibitors of handicrafts and other products, from sweets to local products, set up along the space between the old auction house and the Portimão Municipal Museum.

Live music

Taking to the main stage this year at the event there will be João Leote and Mariza Liz, on the 3rd, David Fonseca (4th), Bárbara Tinoco (5th), Wet Bed Gang (6th) and David Carreira, on the last day of the event.

The first edition of the event dates back to 1985, having received the designation of "Festival da Sardinha e do Mar", which operated in a small space adjacent to the Captaincy of the Port of Portimão.

Due to lack of suitable conditions, the event was interrupted in 1991 and resumed ten years later, in the city's Exhibition Park, returning in 2013 to its place of origin, in the riverside area.

Over the years, sardines have been of great importance to Portimão, a municipality where for decades there were around 850 artisanal fishing vessels and close to 30 canning factories in operation.

The Portimão Sardine Festival will be open daily from 18:00 to 24:00. Admission is free.