The fourth edition of the Alentejo Heritage Festival takes place between September 25 and 27, 2025, in Cabrela, in the municipality of Montemor-o-Novo, with Brazil as the guest country. The festival proposes three days of cultural encounters between Portugal and Brazil, crossing traditions, artistic languages, and community experiences. Created in 2023, the event maintains a strong connection to the territory, transforming streets, squares, and cultural spaces into settings for the artistic experience itself.
The program includes several moments that bring the two cultures closer together. On Friday, Cristina Clara presents the concert "A Balcony for the Atlantic," which brings together fado and Brazilian choro. On Saturday, Coletivo GIRA, founded in Lisbon by immigrant women, promotes "A Samba Circle in the Alentejo" at sunset, bringing one of the most recognized expressions of Afro-Brazilian culture to the Alentejo plain. In the evening, Luso-Brazilian musician Luca Argent joins the group Era Uma Vez o Cante for the show "The River in Our Street."
The program also features movement and contemporary art proposals. Brazilian choreographer and dancer Bárbara Faustino leads a Movement Workshop for Families, while Gonçalo Ribeiro, known as MAR, presents the intervention "We Are All Tourists," which addresses questions of origin, belonging, and passage. The closing on Sunday is marked by the "Washing of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Cabrela," organized by Ayô – Association of Brazilian Art & Culture, inspired by the traditional Washing of Bonfim in Salvador da Bahia.
In Cabrela, in a low-density territory, the festival seeks to create a close relationship between the local community and the artists, valuing participation and sharing as central elements of the cultural experience. The samba circle at dusk, with the Alentejo plain as a backdrop, symbolically represents the encounter between the two shores of the Atlantic.
