In Palmela, culture, and particularly music, is a significant part of the municipality's strategy for the sustainable development of the territory.

We conceive music as a meeting place, a factor of differentiation and affirmation of the current cultural identities. It is through the diversity of musical expressions and through the dimension that music teaching and practice assume in this territory that we affirm ourselves, but it is also in it [music] that we find the substance that allows us to create paths, generate relationships and move on.

Cultural resources, such as music, are distinctive elements in a town: they qualify it, generate employment, reinforce citizenship and social cohesion, (re)affirm the collective identities.

Creativity, internationally recognized as an essential lever for sustainable urban development along with innovation and knowledge, is a factor of sustainable development in our territory, which has been present in the development strategy of the municipality over the last decades. Music has a fantastic ecosystem in the territory of Palmela, which has been originating generations of musicians. We are a 62,000-inhabitant municipality with four centenarian phillarmonics, which attests the musical vocation of our population. Along with the phillarmonics, there are also many musical groups and associations, which make music be a part of their daily life, from folk to jazz, from pop to more erudite music.

The more informal work of music schools accompany the remarkable work developed by the philharmonic schools and ultimately by the regional conservatory of music, where learning is refined under the direction of experts in several musical instruments.

In Palmela, music teaching assumes such a significant role that it is not just about the traditional solfege of classical teaching. Instead, it gives way to the rhythmic learning of traditional percussion or the secular sounds of bagpipes. Music is a reason and a pretext for meetings and festivals, it complements, illustrates and animates pilgrimages and popular festivals creating unique moments when it is associated with the wines that also characterize this land.

We have the only Mechanical Music Musem in the country.

The living culture of Palmela is its balance point. Our job is to create opportunities to reveal, develop and empower existing talents. This is the challenge we are pursuing: to foster local creativity by developing an environment which can turn all this creativity into cultural products.