FIG – Festival Internacional de Gigantes (International Festival of Giants) will take place in the small town of Pinhal Novo, from July 5th to July 7th, in a joint initiative of the Municipality of Palmela with its partners Bardoada - O Grupo do Sarrafo, ATA - Acção Teatral Artimanha, Associação Juvenil COI e PIA - Projectos de Intervenção Artística.
For three days, giants, drums, animated figures, bagpipers and masks will invade the streets of the small town, in a party that is addressed to all types of audiences and which combines the traditional arts and the most contemporary expressions of theatre, music and dance.
The 10th edition features a programme that is full of shows and animation proposals and covers several areas: activities addressed to children, handicraft, “arruadas” (street parades) with the traditional figures and parades with hundreds of participants. Al-Bashirah's Arabic music, the shows “Papers”, by Xarxa Teatre, "Olea", by Visitants Teatro (Spain), and "Calor", by Jean Philippe Kikolas, from Spain; the show "Oyun", by El Fedito, from Argentina; the "Insomnio" show, by Teatro do Mar (Portugal), and "O2 Oxygen", by PIA / Long Fung (Portugal / China), are some of the proposals highlighted in the 2019 programme of events, which also offers you the chance to taste the regional gastronomy.
FIG is a biennial event that is part of the cultural calendar of the county, and it has already earned a place in the national and European festivals panorama, bearing the EFFE 2019/2020 quality label, which identifies it as an integral part of the EFFE - Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe Platform, created by the European Festivals Association. This platform brings together festivals from 45 European countries.
FIG also integrates "Palmela é Música", Palmela's application to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the area of Music.
Complete programme and further information available at: https://fig.cm-palmela.pt/ and at www.facebook.com/festivalinternacionaldegigantes.
FIG’s official inauguration will take place on July 5th, at 8:00 pm, next to the statue of the Giants, in Praça da Independência, with the presence of the Mayor of Palmela, Álvaro Balseiro Amaro, partners and invited entities.
History
FIG, created in 1995, at the initiative of Palmela Town Hall, is part of the County’s Theatre Programme, and has the aim of sensitizing and gathering populations around a thematic festival with theatrical and para-theatrical events, which also confirms the popular and mobilizing character of this art.
In Portugal (which may be one of the countries where such forms of expression were born), the giant figures must have appeared for the first time in the 13th century, during a procession in Alenquer. These figures may have originated some of the popular ones that we can still see today (Santa Coca, the Serpent, the Dragons, etc.), and usually portray monsters that represent the usual good / evil dichotomy.