Postcard From the Algarve - September 05

As carobs are possibly rather rare in Highland Perthshire, I’d better tell you what they are. A carob looks like a black runner bean, and has a chocolaty flavour, when treated, which is used as an ingredient in traditional tarts, puddings, sweets, and coffee, and even pharmaceuticals. The long sticks will come out later in the year when the olive trees are ready.

Now for the late nights. The first weekend, and last weekend in August are the traditional times for the village fete, but not fetes, as you and I know them. A typical fete covers three days, Friday to Sunday. Some start as early as midday, but most are programmed from 6pm to 2a.m. and programmed is the right word. There’s none of this business with stalls selling homemade jam, roundabouts, and raffles.

Algarve Fetes are about entertainment. They may start with a band leading a procession though the village. Sometime during the evening a local folk group will sing and dance, and around 1a.m. the star turn will perform for an hour. He, or she, could be an accordionist, play a guitar, or just sing to a recorded backing. Or the star turn could be a group of exotic dancers. The fete at Santa Catarina in honour of Our Lady of The Seven Sorrows was promoted by a poster showing a statute of the Virgin with seven swords stuck into her, flanked by a photo of a group called Delirium, three ladies who could not be guaranteed to keep on the few clothes they were shown wearing (see below).

One event at another fete was the 11pm Corrida Dos Sacos, which I translated as ‘a parade of bags’. Puzzled by this I asked a Portuguese friend how this traditional event had originated. “It’s not a parade,” he said, “It’s a race. The men get into these big bags and race in them.” A sack race, in fact, just like the sack races of our own summer fetes.