The Sabores de Perdição festival opened its doors today in Castelo Branco, presenting itself as a celebration of the flavors, knowledge, and identity of Beira Baixa. For four days, the city hosts producers, artisans, restaurants, music, cheese, olive oil, honey, sausages, wines, and sweets, in an event that includes concerts by groups such as Cordinhas da Beira Baixa, Viola Beiroa, Já Fui Pedro, Rodrigo Lourenço, Jaime's Band, the Sinfonietta of Castelo Branco, the Regional Conservatory, and the Professional School.
The article, by journalist Fernando Jesus Pires, director of the newspaper O Regiões, raises an uncomfortable question about territorial promotion: who is really being promoted, the city or the image of those who govern it. The author argues that there is a subtle but essential difference between promoting Castelo Branco and promoting whoever presides over Castelo Branco, warning of the danger of institutional communication ceasing to serve the city council and beginning to serve the personalization of power.
Pires mentions that Castelo Branco already has institutional merchandising, such as mugs with the municipal coat of arms, and uses satire to alert to a possible excess in the personalization of municipal power, suggesting hypothetical scenarios of t-shirts with executives' faces. The article emphasizes that democratic power should not become a personal brand, that a city council is not a private company, and that the president is not the owner.
The author acknowledges that the festival has everything to escape this trap, as the true protagonists should be the producers, artisans, musicians, and local knowledge. However, he questions the long-term impact: what will remain when the poster is gone? The producers, the jobs, the young people, the projects? The piece ends with the phrase "power has a mandate; the city has memory," reminding us that a city that endures deserves a policy that thinks beyond the events calendar.
