As promised, I returned to Loulé and to Festival Med.
As I mentioned in last year's article, Med is more than a music festival. Med is stories, it's a mixture of cultures - which, as in the past, cross in the Algarve - is handicrafts, it's eating delicacies spread out through the narrow streets of the historic city center.
The Algarve's people (and not only, they were many the foreigners present at the event) proved once again that they like what's alternative and like to dance to the rhythms of the Mediterranean.
Photo by D+Photos
On the first night (June 29), Ana Moura welcomed the thousands of people present on the enclosure. There are those who don't consider the presence of the 'Fado's diva' suitable to the festival that has accustomed us to the surprise of not knowing what we will listen because, who goes there, goes through the experience of a new music, a relaxed and familiar atmosphere and familiar.
Regardless, I think the festival that has been happening for more than a decade must reinvent itself - but without losing its identity - and bring new audiences who still don't know one of the biggest musical events in the Algarve.
It is impossible to speak of all the performances - they are so many and at the same time! Each one is different, each one is special in its own way and sure that there is one for each taste, with the last performance of each day being electronic music. A DJ by night that puts everyone dancing around the parish church, whether it's the Portuguese Branko, known for being part of the Buraka Som Sistema, or H.A.T. with their sonorities and Moroccan origins.
The Med also makes up performances of new artists of the Algarve, and didn't disappoint, as the fadista André Catarino or the alternative Sara Lawrance & The Bullets. This is Med's magic: if you are different, there is room for you! Had the festival not won the award for best medium-sized festival at the Iberian Festival Awards 2017.
Also noteworthy for the Órquestrada (Portugal) that animated the public with their popular urban music and the acoustics of Luiz Caracol. The Italians Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino also offered the audience with their lively sound and Boogat (Canada/Mexico) with an interventional rap, not forgetting the Throes + The Shine (Portugal/Angola) that made the Castle stage a great party!
Photo by D+Photos
