Three places worth the drive this weekend (and one day you'll want to stay in)
Porto's book fair opens Friday in the Palácio de Cristal gardens, Os Quatro e Meia play Viseu on Saturday and Amarante's performing arts biennial runs to the 30th. Then an unusually autumnal low is forecast to reach the mainland on Sunday.
There is a scheduling problem this weekend. All three of the things genuinely worth travelling for happen outdoors, and the forecast has saved something for Sunday.
Porto first. The book fair returns to the Palácio de Cristal gardens on Friday the 21st and stays up until 6 September, with 144 stands and more than two hundred free events across talks, concerts, film and family sessions. This year’s edition is built around poetry and honours the poet Inês Lourenço. There is live music every evening at 7pm in the Concha Acústica bandstand, and none of it costs anything. We have already put together a full guide to the fair if you want the opening hours and the concert list in one place.
One practical detail worth keeping: on Friday and Saturday the fair stays open until 10pm, an hour later than usual. That is the best window to arrive without queueing at the gate.
Viseu has Saturday covered
At the Campo de Viriato, the Feira de São Mateus is halfway through its month. Os Quatro e Meia play on Saturday the 22nd, and tickets are still €5 if you buy online. The country’s oldest popular fair runs until 6 September, so there is time, but Saturdays are when the ground genuinely fills. Our guide to the lineup and prices sets out which of the 31 nights charge admission.
If you are coming from further afield, note that free public transport in the Viseu municipality only starts on 1 September. This weekend you still pay.
And Amarante, if you prefer theatre to a fairground
Amarante’s performing arts biennial also opens on Friday and runs to 30 August, with ten shows of theatre, dance, film and music spread across markets, farmyards and church forecourts, and not one of them charges admission. It is the calmest of the three, and the one least likely to defeat you on parking. We listed the shows here.
Why Sunday is the odd one out
IPMA is tracking a depression expected to pass north of the Azores before reaching the mainland, one that carries what meteorologist Ângela Lourenço, speaking to the Lusa news agency, called characteristics fairly unusual for this time of year. Persistent rain, strong wind, rough seas. Sunday is the likeliest arrival, though the effects could begin late on Saturday if the system moves faster than expected.
None of that is settled, and the institute is still watching it. But if you have to pick between Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a garden, a fairground or an outdoor stage, the decision just got a lot easier. Check the updated forecast on IPMA’s descriptive outlook before you leave.
Photo: John Samuel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
