Horta do Alto da Eira will once again be filled with music, food and conversation with the Regador Festival, from June 12 to 15. The program includes a popular festival, a market, workshops, debates and concerts.
It's after 11 o'clock and at the Horta do Alto da Eira, near the Sapadores Market, a dozen neighbors, acquaintances and friends have their hands in the soil. It's like this every Saturday. In the morning, the garden is open to the city and anyone who wants to help. On June 8, the first planting of the year takes place - the rains have delayed everything, explains Maria Freitas, co-founder of the Regador association, which manages this community agricultural space.
Maria was less apprehensive when she heard that other gardens were only just starting to plant. The day before, the weeds had already been removed, making room for the new inhabitants of Alto da Eira. Broccoli, cucumbers, Portuguese cabbage, peppers, beet, lettuce... there's a bit of everything being planted, with several hands at work.
None of the volunteers agreed to be in the garden that morning; they all just know that there's work to be done on Saturday mornings and they show up to help. Young people, not so young, even children take part. There are those who come just to chat, to show the garden to their little ones during a weekend outing, or to leave the organic waste in their compost bin and at the same time give the garden a try. hello. Horta do Alto da Eira is much more than a vegetable garden - it's a meeting place, a place to create bonds of neighborliness and friendship.
On Saturday mornings, there's a lot more work to do than just planting. There's no shortage of tasks, especially on Saturday, the eve of one of the highlights of the vegetable garden: the Watering Festival.
Although it is still new (this is only the third edition), the Watering Festival is already an annual celebration of Horta do Alto da Eira, and it's trying to make its mark in Lisbon. It wants to be a celebration of the land, nature, healthy eating and the role of cities on the road to a more sustainable and community-based life. This year's program will feature, as in previous years, a St. Anthony's festival, The event, which will take place on the nights of June 12 and 13, will be hosted by DJs from the local club The Lightning. On the 14th and 15th, the party will continue with the rest of the Regador Festival's program, more focused on knowledge and citizenship. There will be music and socializing, but above all talks on food and sustainability (including a panel with Lisbon's elected politicians), a farmers' market and other activities. Everything will be free.
The main preparations began on Saturday. Between Paulo Torres, another co-founder of the Regador association, Maria Freitas and the community of neighbors and friends of the garden, it was decided where everything would be. The space isn't very big, so you have to make the most of every square meter, ensuring that all the activities can take place coexistently and allowing room to move around and also, of course, for that little dance.
The first two days of the Regador Festival - June 12th and 13th - will bring a beautiful opening, with DJs and musicians from the Regador community, the participation of DJs from O Relâmpago, as well as the long-awaited Rádio Olisipo and A Minha Vida Dava Uma Banda Sonora. The garden will also have food stalls featuring the tasty and sustainable proposals of the much-loved TATI. And, of course on the days of the festival, there will be fresh beer at €1.50. Consumption at the Regador festival is a way of helping to sustain a local agriculture and citizenship project.
Because it's not just at night that there's a party, there's also a daytime mini-program on June 13 with a very special workshop, which will get everyone drawing in the vegetable garden, with illustrator Laura Coutinho. But the Regador Festival wakes up early on the weekend of June 14 and 15. On Saturday, the festival presents a full daytime program, which will include a market, There will be an exhibition of organic farmers, agricultural articles, cooked food, an exhibition on seeds and the wool cycle (Arruda and Surrounding Food Community), and multicultural gastronomy by the Bandim cooperative. There will also be agricultural workshops which promise to teach you how to make a vegetable garden at home and grow micro-vegetables.
On the 14th, there will also be a conversation with representatives of political parties currently present in the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, This will be an opportunity for us to listen, question and participate in the political construction of our collective future. This will be followed by conversation between projects and entities already known to our Festival, These will be a series of events that, together, will explore strategies and paths towards a more ecological and inclusive city. And of course, concerts that bring us more musical proposals and different rhythms, ending with the participation of DJ Rykardo. While TATI will be in charge of the food stall, full of tasty snacks.
The last day of the Regador Festival, the 15th, brings us more activities: a vegetable garden open to anyone who wants to explore and discover its resources and biodiversity; a workshop on building and using solar ovens, with the collaboration of the FNA; a open conversation on inclusive and sustainable food, with producers, distributors, schools, families, nutritionists and others, to discuss access, food culture and solutions; one healthy and creative eating workshop which will get families and people of all ages experimenting and tasting a series of creative, healthy, tasteful, zero-waste and simple-to-make recipes, with the incredible Liliana Escalhão and Romi Bertolini; and a collective cooked dinner, The concert, open to all, by the Zona Franca dos Anjos, will be accompanied by the music of the Regador Choir. And finally the concert that will close the Regador Festival in a special way with Sambacalao, a guitar and saxophone duo that plays Brazilian, Latin and African music.
Since 2021, the Horta do Alto da Eira has been growing with the contribution of many, designing a place for the whole city and establishing itself as a meeting place for culture, education and the environment. Its program goes far beyond the Regador Festival, extending throughout the year with various initiatives. For several years, the project has enjoyed the support of the Lisbon City Council's BIP/ZIP program. More recently, it has been mainly the commitment of volunteers that has kept it alive. Hands like those that showed up this Saturday to help set up the arraial and the whole Festival, preparing the vegetable garden for all those who want to be part of the party.
