Viseu's São Mateus fair runs for 31 days and most tickets cost 5 euros
It opened on 6 August and stays up until 6 September, with Fernando Daniel, Plutónio, Calema, Bárbara Bandeira and Maiara & Maraisa among the confirmed names.
Most Portuguese summer events are measured in weekends. This one is measured in weeks. The Feira de São Mateus opened in Viseu on Thursday and stays standing until 6 September, a run of 31 days that makes it one of the longest in the country.
The ticket price is the headline. Most concerts cost 5 euros bought online, with two stated exceptions: MC Paiva at 7 euros and the Brazilian duo Maiara & Maraisa at 10. For a bill of this reach, that is pricing from another decade.
Who plays, and when
Fernando Daniel gets it going tonight, 7 August. After that they come thick and fast: MC Paiva on the 14th, Plutónio on the 15th, Calema on the 18th and Os Quatro e Meia on the 22nd. In September, fado singer Sara Correia takes the stage on the 4th. Also on the bill are Fingertips, Némanus, Wet Bed Gang, Vizinhos, Bárbara Bandeira, Resistência, ÁTOA, Deejay Telio and Maiara & Maraisa. Full dates and times are on the fair’s official programme, and tickets are on its box office page.
Treating São Mateus as a concert series misses half of it, though. There is cinema, comics, cavalhadas horse displays, gospel music, sport and folk dancing, plus everything that was always there: the food stalls, the fairground rides, the ferris wheel, and the obligatory slow lap between pavilions with a drink in hand.
The fair has medieval roots and is regularly described as one of the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula, which goes some way to explaining why half of central Portugal treats August and September as a single month.
If you are still building a weekend around it, our guide to the Romaria da Senhora da Agonia in Viana do Castelo covers the other big northern date on the calendar right now.
Image: Feira de São Mateus 2026
