Loulé craft fair

Summer in the Algarve is a time for some wonderful fairs and festivals. We went to two craft fairs this year, one in Loulé and the other in Castro Marim over towards the Spanish border. The set-up for the fairs is great - lots of individual cubicle-type stalls, all with electricity and lighting and a sign made for the name of the stallholder. I can't for the life of me remember the proper name for these cubicles but I think it's something like "cantinhos" (somebody correct me if I'm wrong please). Some fairs don't charge stallholders, whilst others do but for a very reasonable price. Most don't charge an entry fee and there is pretty much always free entertainment. UK councils could take a VERY big lesson from this in my opinion - it not only promotes local communities, but handicrafts and local products too as well as traditional music. The atmosphere at these fairs is lovely - nearly always held in an evening when it's cooler they get busier as the evening goes on and they're well supported by the local population and tourists.

I love Loulé - it's an historic countryside town with a really nice atmosphere. People are friendly and although it's a lively, bustling place it still has a traditional feel to it. There's a big gypsy market on a Saturday (I warn you now, everything is €5 and not necessarily a bargain!) which, if you like being in a crowd and jostled about is fun, or you can time it right and go when the crowds have thinned out a bit for some people-watching. The main market in town is also a great place to go for fresh, local produce - when we went in March, there were local little old ladies selling freesias from their own gardens and the smell was incredible as we wandered about. The Portuguese people like to support their local produce, and they don't bang on about it being organic like they do here in the UK. It's just honest, home-grown produce which tastes wonderful, and you don't get ripped off just because it's got the word "organic" somewhere on the label. Grrrrrr - can you tell this really gets my goat? :-).

I found this website which gives some good information about Loulé, and this is a link to a traditional group (Ventos da Líria) we watched at the craft fair. I never knew playing the accordion was so physically demanding! The guy in this group was puffing hard at the end of each song. They were really good and I'd love to see them again - the website is in Portuguese, but there are other links around to information about them.

Here are a few pics of the fair - not many for some reason, sorry!

This is my good friend Isabel who makes lovely glycerine soaps. She shared the stall this year with a lovely lady making felted purses and other goodies. It was 10 nights of hard work but she says she enjoyed it.