CANTANHEDE 1999

The ‘Sociedade Columbófila Cantanhedense’, the pigeon breeding society, in charge of organising the Eurofestival 99, has been a member of The People’s Festival of Europe since 1992. The ‘Columbófila’, pigeon breeding society was founded in 1950, although since 1973 their activities haven’t just been related to sport. A large number of their usual activities they’re involved with are to do with Sport: swimming, tennis and so on or outdoor pursuits such as canoeing, skiing...and so on.
The society, mainly a mixed young group, started to branch out through out the eighties, getting involved in theatre, concerts and other such cultural/recreational activities. Since then they have also become involved in organising cultural exchanges for young people, taking advantage of European projects; for instance, this is the case with ‘Vida/Droga’. The pigeon breeding society hasn’t stopped growing since it began, and now has over 600 members apart from those who due to their age are no longer directly members but continue to support the association.
The FESTIVAL DA JUVENTUDE’99 had a budget of 30.000.000contos. To help out the organisers were able to count on the logistic and economic support of the Chamber of Commerce, the Town Assembly, the Civic Government of Coimbra, and the Portuguese Institute for Young People, through the programme ‘volunteers’, who backed the project in turn through the programme OTL. A protocol was established with the director’s board of the secondary school and they were also able to count on Sponsors from the majority of the local and regional businesses, such as the Asociación de Industrias de Hostelería y similares. The official Sponsor was CTT-Correos, S.A.
The Opening Ceremony and Parade The Eurofestival opened with a bright and colourful parade in which all the members of the committee of Cantanhede participated in the large entourage. Floats, costumes, artesian workers from the region, all joined in to form part of the prelude to the festivities. A wine demonstration, from this region Beiro Litoral, wetted the celebrations
The Eurovillage In the Parque Expo-deportivo de San Mateo in an area reserved by the organisation is where most of the activities took place; coinciding with EXPOFACIC/99. Here is where each nation’s stands could be found exhibiting for the public and members of the organisation examples of traditional wares, typical products, cultural events, and other such information in general about each region.
The IX edition of EXPOFACIC The industrial and agricultural trade fair of Cantanhede lasts for 9 days and has more than 110,000 people pay to visit it. This year there were more than 300 exhibitors and a multitude of concerts in the evenings. Many different cultural associations and committees set up taverns which served tasty dishes and were well attended by the public.
Vuelta Ciclista a Portugal Coinciding with the EXPOFACIC/99 with the FESTIVAL DA JUVENTUDE stages of the Portuguese cycling race passed through Cantanhede.
Gastronomic Demonstrations. These gastronomic demonstrations took place in the EUROVILLA, along side the EXPOFACIC/99 on the 25^th, 26^th, 28^th,and 29^th July. There were four daily demonstrations, and for the first time there wasn’t any competitive element.
Cultural shows. The performances either took place in the EXPOFACIC/99 or at Playa de Tocha. Each country laid on two thirty minute shows and several special shows were also laid on in different homes/residential centres.
Sports. In this edition of THE PEOPLE’S FESTIVAL OF EUOPE all of the following sports were represented by mixed teams: football, basketball, swimming, petanque, cycling, athletics, tennis, beach vollyball.
Facilites All of the delegations were housed in the local secondary schools. The proximity to the Expo-deportivo de San Mateo park made communications much easier. Within the grounds large marquees were set up with a catering service for lunch and supper. A transport system set up by the organisation took the sports teams and the public to their respective grounds.