Food, fun and Portuguese language return to Taipa Houses–Museum

Held for the 21st time, the Lusofonia Festival this year brought once more a lot of food, entertainment and the Portuguese language to the Taipa Houses-Museum.

The event, which ran for three days over the weekend, came to a close yesterday evening with participants and visitors agreeing unanimously that it had been successful.

Although it was not possible to accurately quantify the number of visitors, several of the participants held the impression that the number of visitors this year was at least identical to the previous edition, with some noting that the biggest crowds of the three-day festival were seen on Saturday.
This year the festival was expanded to cover the area from the Houses-Museum to the upper level of Carmo area and Garden, allowing for a better dispersion of people and leading to a more comfortable stay, as one of the vendors noted. “This up here [by the garden] allows people to stay longer, sit, relax, talk…” he said, adding that it is also more comfortable for meals and snacks, “which of course benefits business.”

In the same area, another booth vendor remarked to the Times, “the sales on Saturday almost tripled that on Friday.” The vendor said that on Saturday night there were many people in the evening queuing up for some time to buy vouchers for hot meals. “Today many people came to buy tickets earlier, in advance,” she said.

Visiting the area in the company of her parents was also Vicky, a 25-year-old Hong Kong resident. She told the Times that she had not been aware of the festival, but had just decided to show the area to the parents who had never visited it when they stumbled across it.
“It’s really different; this [place] is usually dead,” she said remarking on the crowds and festivities in the area.
Questioned on the event and after being informed that it would be held only for the weekend, Vicky said, “Oh, it’s only for the weekend. Well maybe they should keep some [of the booths] permanently. I think it’s really more lively like this.”

Also visiting the area was Johna, a non-resident worker from the Philippines. To the Times she said it was the second or third time she has attended the event.

Like the other participants, Johna said, “I came last night and today [returned] with my friend. There were a lot more people last night,” she said, referring in the latter mention to Saturday.

Questioned on her opinion about the event she said, “It’s nice. It’s a good gathering place. [An opportunity] to see new things and meet new people.”

The main path of the festival housed many of the booths represented Portuguese-speaking countries, including those representing the Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, which presented a very refreshing and modern look.

On the same stretch, the booth representing Portugal (Casa de Portugal Association) and another from the Brazilian Association, depicted a ship and a traditional Brazilian “boteco” (pub) respectively. Both attracted many visitors while the Times visited, with the first offering a free tasting of Portuguese cheese and chorizo and the second offering to visitors several Brazilian delicacies, from sweet “brigadeiro” to the famous “caipirinha.”

A different project was staged at the Mozambique Association booth. The association joined hands with the project “Dress a Girl Around the World Macau”, which aims to provide at least one dress for every underprivileged and vulnerable girl across the most deprived countries.

The project is led in Macau by Ana Cristina Vilas, who organized during the Lusofonia Festival a catwalk dresses made with a traditional Mozambique fabric – capulana.
To the Times, Vilas also noted the strong turnout although, in her opinion, last year’s edition might have seen bigger crowds, especially on Saturday. Still, she said she was pleased with the event.

This year the festival returned to its previous form of being a three-day event after the last edition had been extended to four days. Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam said during this year’s festival that the 2019 edition might again be held for four days; an idea that garnered a positive reaction among association representatives even as it raised concerns regarding budgeting and resources.