The Festa de São João, the feast of St John the Baptist, is Porto's biggest and most popular festival, and one of Europe's most spectacular. On the night of 23-24 June the whole city, together with hundreds of thousands of visitors, takes to the streets until dawn to eat, dance, sing and cheerfully bop each other on the head with plastic hammers. It is part of the Porto guide; for the country's festivals see fairs and festivals in Portugal.
Origins
Like many St John's festivals in Europe, São João has its roots in ancient pagan summer solstice celebrations, with bonfires and fertility rites, later Christianised. In Porto the festival has become over the centuries the moment when the whole city comes together, especially the working-class districts, which spend weeks preparing their arraiais, street parties with bunting, lights and music.
Symbols
- Plastic hammers (martelinhos): colourful and squeaky, the modern symbol of the festival, introduced in the 1960s. Everyone hits everyone on the head, strangers included, all in good fun.
- Leeks (alho-porro): the oldest custom; before hammers, people waved a flowering leek under each other's noses for good luck.
- Manjericos: small pots of basil with a paper carnation and a little flag bearing a popular love verse, given to one's beloved. You smell them by brushing your hand over the leaves, not by putting your nose close.
- Paper balloons (balões de São João): paper lanterns with a flame, released into the sky by the thousand; their use is now regulated because of fire risk.
- Grilled sardines, caldo verde, cornbread and wine, eaten in the street at stalls and on neighbourhood tables.
The night
The festival begins on the evening of 23 June. People flood the centre, the Ribeira, Fontainhas, the Sé area and Aliados with hammers, leeks and manjericos; in the neighbourhoods people dance around bonfires and stalls. At midnight a great fireworks display lights up the Douro between the Dom Luís I and Arrábida bridges: it can be seen from the Ribeira, the Gaia riverfront, the bridge and the hills. After the fireworks tradition has people walk along the river to Foz to see dawn over the ocean, perhaps with a swim, while the young carry on partying in bars and on the beaches.
24 June
24 June is a municipal holiday in Porto. In the afternoon the regatta of barcos rabelos takes place, the traditional boats that once carried wine down the Douro, each in the colours of a Gaia lodge, racing under sail between the river mouth and the Dom Luís I Bridge.
Practical tips
- Book accommodation months ahead: it is one of the busiest, most expensive times of year.
- Wear comfortable clothes and closed shoes: the crowds are huge and the streets steep.
- Keep your wallet and phone safe.
- Public transport runs all night with special services, but is packed; many central streets are closed to traffic.
- For the fireworks arrive early at the Ribeira or Gaia, or find a spot on the Fontainhas or Serra do Pilar hills.
- Buy a hammer and a manjerico at the stalls: they are part of the experience.
Other June festivals
June is the month of the Santos Populares throughout Portugal: St Anthony is Lisbon's festival, St John belongs to Porto and Braga, where it is celebrated with processions and illuminations, and St Peter to other towns. See also when to go to Porto.