In 2023, Andanças Festival is blossoming at the heart of Campinho.
From the 27 th to the 30 th of July, we will be dancing once more to the rhythm of Alentejo.
Andanças blossoming in the heart of Campinho
In 2021, Andanças Festival found a new home
at Campinho. This is a village in the municipality
of Reguengos de Monsaraz, overlooking the Alentejo
plain and its cork oaks and holm oaks, just 3 kilometres away from Alqueva’s famed water mirror.
That very same year of 2021, we started “A Caminhar para o Andanças”, that is, “Walking to Andanças”,
in a special edition designed to get to know the region and lead us towards the future of the festival, where we swapped seeds and promised to sprout in this new land. Thus, the next year, Andanças sprouted at Campinho, bringing back with it the four pillars of the festival – Dancing & Music, Volunteering, Community and Sustainability – and the big family of Andantes. A challenging edition that embraced the whole village and was in its turn embraced by this community! An embrace that also reached hundreds of new dancers, bringing new people to the Andanças spirit.
And together we promised to blossom! Now it is 2023,
a year to grow. Respecting the laws of nature and the rhythm of Alentejo, we start off the year preparing for the future. On January 14th, we began planting trees in the camping area of the festival. In a partnership between Além Risco, Reguengos de Monsaraz City Hall, Campo and Campinho Parish Council, Gente Nova Association and PédeXumbo, we took this small yet big step to make Campinho greener! Among strawberry trees, nettle trees, judas tree, cypresses, jacarandas, laurel-trees, oleanders, stone pines, mastic-trees, terebinths, sloe-trees, wild pear trees, holm oaks, cork oaks, buckthorns, hawthorns, laurustinus, we planted hundreds of trees which we will see growing in the next years in cooler areas, better adapted to climate change.
Andanças is blossoming in the heart of Campinho, which this year continues to be the official rendezvous point for the Andantes. We will be seeing each other between the 27 th and the 30 th of July, for the 25 th edition of Andanças, in a year when PédeXumbo also celebrates its 25 th anniversary. We invite you to this double celebration, once more counting on the partnership of the City Hall of Reguengos de Monsaraz, the Parish Council
of Campo and Campinho and the Association Gente Nova de Campinho.
At a new pace – biennial Andanças
To grow and to blossom takes its time and Andanças has gained a new rhythm in this new home; a rhythm which welcomes repose as another way of being. Starting this year, PédeXumbo is proposing a biennial Andanças, which will happen every two years, fully committed to make it even more sustainable; to provide better conditions for those who create it and for those who participate, thinking and working in a more detailed manner in each edition; to strengthen the bond to the territory hosting it, with the promotion of projects for artistic creation in the local community in the years when there is no festival.
Every two years, Andanças will be a place better prepared
to welcome those who arrive, such as families and their
offspring, and with stronger partnerships with this community it is now getting to know.
Alentejo, Campinho and its people
Campinho, in the municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz, is the official rendezvous point for the Andantes. Amongst the plain of cork oaks and holm oaks, in the yellow and undulating summer landscape, the village of Campinho is 3
kilometres away from the calm and idyllic waters of Alqueva, the largest artificial lake in Europe.
“And why Campinho? Why did Andanças move to a village in the Alentejo countryside, where the heat closes in fast and the shade has to be earned?”
Cultural decentralization, and the inland region of Alentejo specifically, are at the top of the priority list
for the programming designed by PédeXumbo, as well
as the development of the communities and territories it populates with its projects.
Andanças has found a new home in a place which if not inhabited, not even seasonally, will grow more and more isolated. And a lifeless territory by default will not bring about any life. Due to its history, as well as the projects that it puts forward throughout the year, Andanças will contribute in a positive way to this municipality. Surely this contribution is only valid if it is developed in the medium term, in a collaborative process, acting as a catalyst for the development of the region. As a global village, where participants are invited to interact and share, the festival gives them the opportunity to be a part of this process; not only through the programme the participants come to enjoy, but also through sharing with the community and experiencing the place with its many ways of living. Andanças gives the opportunity to reflect about how it is to live in the inland region of Alentejo.
This year, the festival takes place from July 27 th to the 30 th , returning to the streets and venues of Campinho, in an edition for 1500 participants. From the main enclosure to the camping site, from the Children’s Space to the Health Space, from the ticket office to the Andanças Canteen, from the alleys to the squares to be filled with music and Andantes, you will find all the services of the festival in this Alentejo village. And you will also find the bakery, cafés, restaurants, taverns, grocery stores and the locals from Campinho, who are eagerly awaiting the return of the Andanças spirit to their streets.
Four days to do
Andanças is much more than just a festival dedicated to social dancing, it is a utopia which temporarily becomes reality, an annual milestone for aficionados and an unprecedented experience for beginners. At Andanças, where everyone is a participant, no one merely watches, everyone comes to do. The festival offers four days of a programme with several activities for all ages throughout the day. Music and folk dancing are once again the privileged means of learning, interchange between generations, knowledge and cultures. Four days to dance, on a journey to various corners of the world, with the many moments of learning and sharing moments that the festival has accustomed us to. With four main stages, the programme includes dancing, relaxation and instrument workshops, dances, concerts and shows, from plays to performances. Special highlight for The Children’s Space, with activities for families.
The “Paralelas” Space will not go by unnoticed, with its many arts and crafts. During these four days, lovers of travelling and walking will also have the opportunity to know the region with the local programme suggestions, showcasing the gastronomy, handicraft and local customs.
