FMM Sines – Festival Músicas do Mundo, the biggest world music party in Portugal, is back to Sines town on the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st of July with 26 concerts in the majestic settings of Sines’ Castle and Beach Vasco da Gama.

The full programme of concerts is now disclosed and includes Staff Benda Bilili, the most awarded group of the year, the reggae legend U-Roy, desert blues masters Tinariwen, The Mekons, Yasmin Levy, Forro in the Dark, Wimme, Sa Dingding, Grupo Fantasma and many other exciting bands and artists from four continents.

Please remember that the Porto Covo stage will not host concerts this year and that elements of the disclosed programme are subject to change.

Programme
July 28 (Wednesday)

Vitorino e Janita Salomé com Grupo de Cantadores de Redondo (Portugal), Castle, 18h30
Cacique’97 (Mozambique / Portugal), Beach Stage, 20h00
Nat King Cole en Espagnol (USA / Cuba / Portugal), Castle, 22h00
Las Rubias del Norte (USA), Castle, 23h30
Céu (Brazil), Castle, 01h00
Novalima (Peru), Beach Stage, 03h00

July 29 (Thursday)

34 Puñaladas (Argentina), Castle, 18h30
Wimme (Finland / Sami People), Beach Stage, 20h00
Yasmin Levy (Israel), Castle, 22h00
N’Diale – Jacky Molard Quartet & Founé Diarra Trio (Brittany / Mali), Castle, 23h30
The Mekons (UK / USA), Castle, 01h00
Grupo Fantasma (USA), Beach Stage, 03h00

July 30 (Friday)

Kimi Djabaté (Guinea-Bissau), Castle, 18h00
The Rodeo (France), Beach Stage, 19h30
Barbez (USA), Castle, 21h30
Sa Dingding (China), Castle, 23h00
Tinariwen (Mali / Sahara), Castle, 00h30
Forro in the Dark (Brazil), Beach Stage, 02h30
Bailarico Sofisticado convida Selecta Alice (Portugal), Beach Stage, 04h00

July 31 (Saturday)

Guadi Galego (Galicia), Castle, 18h00
Galaxy (East-Timor), Beach Stage, 19h30
Lole Montoya (Spain), Castle, 21h30
Cheick Tidiane Seck feat. Mamani Keita (Mali), Castle, 23h00
Staff Benda Bilili (DR Congo), Castle, 00h30
U-Roy (Jamaica), Beach Stage, 02h30
Batida (Portugal / Angola), Beach Stage, 04h00

Did you ever wonder where the cork in your bottle of wine came from?

Below you will find a video of the cork harvest at Monte Horizonte in the Alentejo region of Portugal.

The Alentejo region is the biggest producer of cork in the world. Cork is nowadays harvested once in 10 years while before it was once in 9 years. The number on the tree indicates the year the last harvest took place. 

So, when in the future you open a bottle of wine, please keep in mind that the cork in your hand could be coming from our property.

This year the Alentejo pipped the Algarve to the post in taking the award for Best National Tourism Region after its southern rival had been awarded the title for three consecutive years.

The results of the annual Publituris Portugal Travel Awards, considered by those in the industry as the ‘Oscars’ of tourism, were announced last week. A lavish gala evening was held at the Hotel Tivoli Victoria, in Vilamoura (Algarve), during which the awards were announced.

For the first time in three years the Algarve did not take the most coveted award – best national region – which instead went to the Alentejo.

Ironically, the winner for ‘Best National Tourism Region’ was announced by the head of the Algarve Regional Tourism Board (ERTA), Nuno Aires, who joked that the award would be “on loan” to the Alentejo until 2011, when it would “have to be returned”.

The award could be seen as the proverbial ‘cherry on the cake’ for the Alentejo region, which over the past year has made headlines for emerging from the financial crisis as the only region in Portugal to have registered an increase in tourism figures, visitors, occupancy and revenue included.

In the category of ‘Best 5-star Hotel’, the award went to the Ritz Four Seasons Hotel, in Lisbon, to the detriment of its competition such as the Tivoli Collections and the Blue & Green Tróia Design Hotel.

The winner for ‘Best Hotel Resort’ was the Vila Vita Park Resort & Spa, in the Algarve, which took the title from the Praia d’El Rey Golf & Beach Resort, in Óbidos, and the Choupana Hills Resort & Spa, Madeira.

In the category of ‘Best Hotel Chain’ the winner was the Tivoli Hotel & Resorts Group and ‘Best Golf Course’ was awarded to the ‘Oitavos Dunes Natural Links Golfe’, located within the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park.

Regarding transport, national airline TAP took the ‘Best Airline’ award, beating competition from Air France and Lufthansa.

‘Best Low Cost Airline’ was given to easyJet, who beat rivals Ryanair and AirBerlin to the title.

Within the ‘Best Travel Agency’ category, the award went to Nortravel’, who beat off competition from two other candidates, Soltour and MundoVip. Travel and holiday website ‘NetViagens’ took first prize for best website travel agency.

Regarding car hire companies, Europecar beat Avis and Budget to the winning position, with the award for ‘Best Incoming Operator’ being given to Citur, for the sixth consecutive time.

Spain was bestowed the ‘Best International Destination’, being favoured over France and the Dominican Republic.

The Publituris Portugal Travel Awards candidates are nominated via an online voting system, which this year drew in some 7,000 participants. A jury of 13 experts then elects the winners from each category.

Santo André, first a parish then a village, started to turn into a meeting point for people of the land and people of the sea.

The main income source was the rice culture. The rice cycle, that started in 1804, would only end in 1974, when the Gabinete da Área de Sines (an organism created on June 19, 1971, that created and managed the Santo André as an Urban Center up until the December 29, 1988, when it was extinct) started a new cycle that would come to be known as concrete cycle.

In the beginning of 1973, taking advantage of the oil exploration in that was taking place in Cabinda and providing huge amounts of oil, the Portuguese government decided to create and industrial complex destined to implant the petrochemical exploration in the country, and thus make a stand in the European context where industries of this type were already being developed and used to create wealth.

Thus, the Urban Center of Santo André was born, which would be raised to city on July 1, 2003.

As there was a preoccupation with the environment as well as with the health of the industrial complex's workers, Santo André was kept at a minimum distance of 10 km and a pine forest that works as a protection from eventual catastrophe.

Santo André is located in the region of Alentejo, in Portugal, and belongs to the municipality of Santiago do Cacém, in the subregion of Alentejo Litoral.

It is very near the sea (2 km) and also near the Alentejo Southwest and Vicentina Coast,a protected area. Its climate is temperate, ranging from 8°C–18°C in the winter and 20º–35º in the summer. Thin-sand soil can be found in some places and in the city there are a lot of pine trees.

There are some extensive sandy beaches within. The extensive forest that protects Santo André is a good example of possible respect between the protection of the environment and the industrial development.

Santo André was built during the 1970s to answer the housing needs of the workers of the industrial complex of Sines. For the next two decades it attracted inhabitants from all over the country and especially people from Portugal's African ex-colonies. These people were mainly skilled technicians and people with an average education (9th–12th grade) or higher (university). This originated a very young population with a wealth considerably higher than the national average. Santo André's inhabitants enjoy a higher-than-average living quality, for which the beaches, as well as the proximity of the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina, help contribute. Sines, only a few minutes from Santo André, by car, is one of the most dynamic cities of the Alentejo, having kept all its historical charm. It still represents a main center for development in the province of Alentejo, especially since the University was built in Santo André.

Before Santo André was built the locals made their livings from fishing (in the sea and in the lagoon), agriculture (mainly rice) and fairs.

Nowadays, industry is very important to the economy, giving work to thousands of the people of Santo André. Local commerce is also important, but on a smaller scale.

Natural Beaches

There are beaches of fine sand and a sea of infinity blue. The golden sand beaches seems to have no limits. The paths of the "Blue Coast" (as it is classified) seem to characterize the landscape of Alentejo. The first impression one has (when in Portugal) when talking about the Alentejo is the image of a burning plane (this is one of Portugal's hottest regions). However there are dozens of kilometers of beach all throughout the seaside of Alentejo's coast, ranging from Sado's southern margin (in Tróia) to the beginning of the Algarve. The giant extension of sand that connects Tróia to Sines, with over 60 km, has some of the best beaches in Portugal (better water quality, cleaner sand and water, as well as good surf spots, than most of the country). They are of a very thin sand, and of a bluish tranquility:

"Costa" (Coast) beach – has watchers; good for surfing, windsurfing and fishing
"Areias Brancas" (White Sands) beach – ideal windsurf conditions.
"Fonte do Cortiço" (Cork Fountain) beach – good windsurf conditions and considered one of this area's natural sanctuaries.
"Monte Velho" (Old Mountain) beach – good windsurf conditions; classified by the Environment Ministry as a Golden Beach for presenting itself as one of the best-preserved beaches in the country; it is a part of the protected area of the Lagoons of Sancha and Santo André and contains several walking trails through its dunes, that lead to places of natural and ecological value.

The FMM Sines – Festival Músicas do Mundo is back to appear before the audience of spectators and will happen between the 23th and 31 July 2010.

The distribution of the concerts is on 12 different stages.

The edition of the FMM 2010 is similar to previous years: three days in Porto Covo (23 to 25 July), two-day concert in the auditorium of the Centro de Artes de Sines (26 and 27 July) and four days with music on stage in the Castle Avenue and Vasco da Gama (28th July 31).

06 de Julho (Saturday)
Hall of Music
21h00 – Election of the Kings and Little Kings of the Carnival of Sines 2010

February 12 (Friday)
Avenida General Humberto Delgado
09h30 – Arrival of the Little Kings of Carnival 2010, accompanied by the mascot MERRY
10:00 – 19th Edition of the Carnival of the Little Ones (Ed. JF Sines)

February 13 (Saturday)

10h00 – Arrival of their Highnesses Reias Carnival Sines 2010
Speech by the Royal Castle, animated streets of the historic
15.00 – Hall of Music – Senior Carnival
Masked Ball at the accordion Noemia and Antonio Cardoso
Prizes for best masks (Ed. JF Sines)
22h00 – Largo Poeta Bocage
Masked Ball / Awards for most creative masks
Percussion Group Skalabatuka
Musical entertainment and humor and UBAUBA Passarinhos
DJ Black MANBA (Ed. CMS / Desk Officer for Youth)
23h00 – Sports Park (IOS) Space tent up at 6 am
Carnival DJS PARTY
DJ Rita Mendes – DJ MR Folião and guests

February 14 (Sunday)
10:00 – Animation streets of the City
15:00 – Avenida Vasco da Gama (next to lowest)
March attended by the ambassadors of the Carnival of Sines 2010, Francisco Mendes presenter TOP + RTP1 and Célia Maria singer and actress
Samba schools, floats, bands and revelers
22h00 – Sports Park (IOS) Space Tent
Baile Carnaval with the musical group Brothers Cabin
Animation "Valentine's Night 'offer of a weekend in the Algarve and many surprises for the couple with the most romantic fantasy

February 15 (Monday)
17:00 – Animation streets of the City
21:00 – Avenida Vasco da Gama (next to lowest)
Light, joy and color in one of the best carnivals in the country night. Samba schools, groups revelers, floats, thousands of masked and many surprises and the presence of the ambassadors Francisco Mendes, Célia Maria
23h00 – Sports Park (IOS) Space tent up at 6 am
Masquerade with all the Brothers Music Shack
Animation into the night with DJ and invited Folião

February 16 (Tuesday)
10:00 – Animation streets of the City
15:00 – Avenida Vasco da Gama (with the Bay)
Carnival March to Francisco Mendes, Célia Maria
22h00 – Sports Park (IOS) Space Tent
Baile de Carnaval with the musical group Brothers Cabin
Presentation of the ratings and awards

February 17
22:00 – Focus on Square Tomás Ribeiro (near the old post office)
Burial of Carnival
24:00 – Closing ceremony of the Carnival of Sines 2010 – Speaking Real

Sines is one of the cities which has a considerable Carnivalesque tradition in Portugal. Every year, thousands of people from all over the country gather here to see the parade. The Sines’ Carnival – where the floats are paraded at night – was internationally acclaimed during the early 20th Century. It combines the Portuguese people’s satirical and creative spirit, with the splendour and energy of the Brazilian Carnival, so as to produce a vibrant show, engaging the whole town. The Vasco da Gama Avenue also plays host to a smaller edition of the Carnival on a summer’s night (variable date).