What's On 1 August 2026

Castro Marim's Medieval Days have dates and tickets — five days of jousts, fire and feasting

Castro Marim's Medieval Days return from 26 to 30 August 2026 for a 27th edition. Day tickets cost €8, €5 for children aged 6 to 11, and a five-day pass is €16.

When: 26 August 2026
Where: Castro Marim, Algarve
Price: €8 a day (€5 for ages 6-11, free under 6); five-day pass €16
Organizer: Município de Castro Marim

If there is one place worth swapping the beach for a suit of armour at the end of August, it is Castro Marim castle. The Medieval Days are back from 26 to 30 August for a 27th edition, and tickets are already on sale.

When are Castro Marim’s Medieval Days?

From 26 to 30 August 2026 — five days and five nights in and around the fortress guarding the mouth of the Guadiana. It is one of Portugal’s oldest medieval fairs and still one of the few staged inside a real castle rather than a purpose-built enclosure.

How much do tickets cost?

A day ticket is €8 for adults and €5 for children aged 6 to 11, free for under-sixes. Anyone planning more than one visit comes out ahead with the five-day pass at €16 — two visits and you are already up. Tickets are sold through the BOL platform and associated outlets.

What is actually on?

Mounted jousting tournaments, street theatre, fire-breathers, falconry displays, Arab-Iberian music and dance, banquets, and a period crafts market spread through the streets. Around thirty performing groups circulate through the village, which means you wander corner to corner picking up different things rather than sitting waiting for the next show.

Two practical notes. Late August in the Algarve interior is hot by day and cool at night, and the site has real steps and cobbles — comfortable shoes are a requirement, not a suggestion. The day-by-day programme goes up on the official Medieval Days site, and if you are filling in the rest of the month there is more in our what’s on this weekend in Portugal round-up.

By Leonor Sampaio

Image: Marc Ryckaert (MJJR) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)

What's On 1 August 2026

Alcobaça's São Bernardo fair runs 20 to 24 August and it still costs nothing to walk in

The São Bernardo fair, Alcobaça's municipal festival, runs from 20 to 24 August 2026 in the city centre between the Rossio and Cova da Onça, with free entry.

Alcobaça marks its own calendar in its own way: five days of fair through the town centre, with nobody on the gate. The São Bernardo fair, the municipal festival, runs from 20 to 24 August and entry is free. From 20 to 24 August 2026. The date is not arbitrary — 20 August is the feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the town's patron and the towering figure of the Cistercian order, which left Alcobaça the monastery that is still a World Heritage site. In…

Pedro Abrunhosa performing on an outdoor stage at night

What's On 31 July 2026

Noites dos Jardins do Palácio has its dates and tickets — Porto, 11 and 12 September

Noites dos Jardins do Palácio 2026 runs 11 and 12 September at the Palácio de Cristal gardens in Porto, with Pedro Abrunhosa, Bárbara Bandeira, Nenny and more.

September in Porto usually feels like the season winding down. This year it gets extra time. Noites dos Jardins do Palácio returns on 11 and 12 September for two evenings of open-air music in the Palácio de Cristal gardens, and the line-up is now confirmed. Friday 11 September brings Pedro Abrunhosa, Tiago Nacarato and Rita Rocha. Abrunhosa and Porto have their own long history, so expect a crowd that knows every word. Nacarato brings the whispered voice…

What's On 31 July 2026

Andanças 2026 has dates and tickets, and it's four days of dancing in Reguengos de Monsaraz

The Andanças festival turns 30 and returns to Campinho, Reguengos de Monsaraz, from 13 to 16 August 2026. Full passes and day tickets, camping included, free entry for under-12s.

Some festivals are for listening to. Andanças is for dancing at, and it returns from 13 to 16 August to Campinho, in Reguengos de Monsaraz, marking 30 years of something rare in Portugal: four days where almost everyone on site is moving their feet. From 13 to 16 August, in the Alentejo, a few kilometres from the Monsaraz everyone photographs at sunset. It is run by the association PédeXumbo, which founded it as an international traditional music and…

What's On 30 July 2026

What's on across Portugal on 1 and 2 August, from Peniche's festa to a Porto craft market

Your guide to the 1 and 2 August weekend in Portugal: summer festas in Peniche, Mirandela and Ribeira de Pena, markets in Porto and Estremoz, open-air cinema and the last days of the Vivian Maier show.

August arrives on a Saturday this year, and it arrives well stocked. This is one of those weekends where the entire country seems to have agreed to throw a party at the same time, with the happy side effect that most of it costs nothing. Here is where to point the car. Peniche is in the final stretch of its town festival, which started on 24 July and closes on Sunday 2 August, free to enter. It is a hard combination to beat: a summer festa with the…

What's On 30 July 2026

Lisboa Mágica returns 18 to 23 August with 175 free shows across 13 squares and gardens

Lisboa Mágica 2026 runs 18 to 23 August with 175 free street-magic shows in 13 Lisbon locations, featuring 15 artists from 10 countries. Dates, programme and venues.

Some festivals fill stadiums. This one fills squares. Lisboa Mágica is back from 18 to 23 August with 175 shows, every single one free, scattered across 13 squares, gardens and small plazas in the capital. This is the 14th edition of a festival created in 2006 under the artistic direction of magician Luís de Matos, and the format is still disarming: instead of a ticket, a stage and a numbered seat, there is one performer, a ring of people around them, and…

What's On 29 July 2026

Festa do Avante turns 50 in September, and the three-day ticket still costs 35 euros

Festa do Avante 2026 marks its 50th edition from 4 to 6 September at Quinta da Atalaia in Seixal. Dates, ticket prices, the music lineup and everything happening beyond the stages.

Fifty years is a long run for anything in Portugal, let alone a festival that gets built and taken apart every single year on the same patch of ground in Seixal. Festa do Avante hits its 50th edition in 2026, from 4 to 6 September at Quinta da Atalaia in Amora — and in a summer where almost everything got more expensive, the ticket price is still one of its strongest arguments. Friday to Sunday, 4, 5 and 6 September, on the Quinta da Atalaia grounds in…

Official Indie Music Fest 2026 artwork for the festival at Floresta Mágica da Quinta do Cabo in Baltar

What's On 29 July 2026

Indie Music Fest 2026 is back in Baltar this September, and day one is free

Indie Music Fest 2026 runs 3 to 5 September at Floresta Mágica da Quinta do Cabo in Baltar, Paredes. Dates, tickets, the first names on the bill and the free opening day.

Some festivals fill stadiums. This one fills a clearing in the woods, and that is exactly the point. Indie Music Fest returns to Baltar, in the municipality of Paredes, from 3 to 5 September, once again at Floresta Mágica da Quinta do Cabo, still doing the thing almost nobody else in Portugal does with this much stubbornness: building an entire bill out of Portuguese independent music. Thursday to Saturday, 3 to 5 September, on the wooded grounds of…

What's On 28 July 2026

Góis holds its town festival from 7 to 12 August, and Tony Carreira opens it for 5 euros

Dates, programme and tickets for the Festas do Concelho de Góis 2026: Tony Carreira on 7 August for 5 euros, Sara Correia on the 8th and Marisa Liz on the 9th, at Parque de Lazer do Baião.

If August takes you anywhere near the Serra da Lousã and you want a plan that costs almost nothing, Góis runs its town festival from 7 to 12 August, nearly all of it free and with a lineup that would not embarrass towns several times its size. Most of it happens at the Parque de Lazer do Baião, with Largo Francisco Inácio Dias Nogueira hosting the finale. In between there are food stalls, a small market, bouncy castles for the kids, rolling entertainment…

What's On 28 July 2026

Guimarães is deep in the Gualterianas until 3 August, and the big concerts cost nothing

The Festas da Cidade e Gualterianas run in Guimarães from 24 July to 3 August. Concerts at Largo do Toural are free, and the programme mixes a craft fair, folk dancing, fado nights and the closing Gualteriana march.

Guimarães spends the end of July smelling of fried dough and echoing with drums, and there is still time to catch the best of it. The Festas da Cidade e Gualterianas started on 24 July and only bow out on 3 August. The big concerts are at Largo do Toural and they cost nothing. Theo & The Dons and Fragmentos open on 30 July, Bárbara Bandeira takes 31 July, Dillaz has the night of 1 August and GNR close things out on 2 August. It is a line-up that manages…

What's On 28 July 2026

Milagre Metaleiro has its full line-up and tickets out, and Paradise Lost are heading to a village near Viseu

Milagre Metaleiro Open Air 2026 runs 21 to 23 August in Pindelo dos Milagres, Sao Pedro do Sul, with Paradise Lost, Insomnium and Destruction. Three-day passes cost 75 euros.

Some festivals happen in vast fenced grounds with a sponsor on every lamppost. And then there is Milagre Metaleiro, which happens in a village in Sao Pedro do Sul and drags international metal up into the hills, with local food three minutes from the stage. From 21 to 23 August, in Pindelo dos Milagres. This is the seventeenth edition, which by now makes it an institution on the Portuguese circuit, the kind people return to every year and where half the…

What's On 26 July 2026

São Bento da Porta Aberta fills the Gerês from 10 to 15 August, and the programme for its great pilgrimage is out

The Grande Romaria de São Bento da Porta Aberta 2026 runs 10-15 August in the Gerês, with 13 August as the big day: solemn mass, candlelit procession, concertina gathering and two nights of fireworks.

Portugal has summer events with a line-up, a wristband and a main stage. And then it has this one, which fills a hillside in the Gerês for six days without needing any of that. From 10 to 15 August, with 13 August as the big day. The sanctuary sits in Rio Caldo, in the municipality of Terras de Bouro, inside the Peneda-Gerês National Park, and every year it draws thousands of pilgrims from across Portugal, from neighbouring Galicia and above all from the…

What's On 25 July 2026

Semana do Mar 2026 has its dates and line-up, and Horta fills up from 31 July to 9 August

Dates, line-up and programme for Semana do Mar 2026 in Horta, Faial: regattas, the ethnographic parade, folklore and concerts from Paulo Gonzo to Lon3r Johny.

Semana do Mar 2026 runs from 31 July to 9 August in Horta, on the island of Faial, and this is the 49th edition — old enough by now to be described as what it actually is: the biggest nautical festival in Portugal and one of the great parties of the Azores. From 31 July to 9 August, with Horta as the stage and the marina as the beating heart of it. Anyone who has been will tell you the town changes scale that week: the harbour fills with boats, the…

What's On 25 July 2026

Tickets for Festival de Arronches 2026 are out and a day pass costs 10 euros

Festival de Arronches runs from 7 to 9 August in the Alto Alentejo, with day tickets at 10 euros and a lineup picked from a national open call that drew over 640 applications.

While half the country argues about stadium lineups, a border village of barely three thousand people has built an entire festival around artists nobody has heard of yet. Festival de Arronches returns from 7 to 9 August for its third edition, and a day ticket costs 10 euros. Friday 7 to Sunday 9 August, in Arronches, in the district of Portalegre, a short drive from the Spanish border. Day tickets are 10 euros, and there is a special 5-euro ticket for…

Official Festival F 2026 artwork, 3-5 September in Faro

What's On 25 July 2026

Festival F 2026 has its line-up, dates and tickets — Slow J and Carminho close out summer in Faro

Festival F returns to Faro on 3-5 September with seven stages inside the old town. Full line-up, dates, tickets and what to know before you go.

If any festival is built for waving summer off without the drama, it is this one. Festival F reaches its 11th edition in 2026 and returns to Faro on 3-5 September, turning the historic Vila Adentro quarter into an open-air stage again, city walls and all, right down to the edge of the Ria Formosa. The line-up reads like a snapshot of Portuguese music right now, with several generations sharing the same weekend. Slow J, Carminho backed by the Algarve…