Lisbon Doing What Lisbon Does Best

Sharon is with us for the week and, so, looking for something to do on a Saturday night in June, I trawled through the weekend papers and the internet listings (“Guia do Lazer” hosted by the newspaper “Publico” at www.lazer.publico.pt I found most helpful) and I was not disappointed. We had a wonderful evening.

We headed out at 8pm, skirted round the city centre to avoid the thousands who were down at Praça de Comercio for the Tony Carriera concert. This was the conclusion of “Party in the Park”, which had been going on all day in the central Avenida Liberdade. Anyway, our first stop was in a far more out of the way corner of the city. Jardim de Amoreiras - a

little haven of a park tucked away just round the back of Amoreiras Shopping Centre where the cars on the A5 stream into the City. That’s what I love about this city - these little patches of green, with refreshing fountains and so on, and no-one knows they’re there.

It was one of four Lisbon parks that was billed as hosting free music concerts throughout the evening.

We were delighted to find an open air fado performance on one side of the park, and an excellent delta blues combo at the other side. Take your pick. We started with the fado, which was delightful as the sun went down, and then moved on to the Catacumbas Blues Band for the next hour so. From there we made our way down to Rua das Janelas Verdes where a festival of Latin American Dance was in full swing. Swaying to the sounds of salsa and samba with

the happy crowd for a while, before we moved on to Alfama, where, quite by chance, we discovered a troop of lads and girls all elaborately dressed up and dancing the traditional street marches associated with St Anthony’s Day. And so the night ended with sardines and farturas, and home to bed

What a crazy colourful, mixed up patchwork of culture, Lisbon is, and during June, it’s at its best and at its boldest. I’m quite sure that if we had had the energy, and the curiosity we would have found African Music, Irish music, jazz, dance and any number of other music genres of music filling the city’s bars and streets. It’s what the city does best - especially in June. And, by the way, what the city doesn’t do so well is marketing itself, and letting the general public know about these wonderful free events. I had to really struggle hard to find information about any of these, but maybe thats all part of the charm and the fun.