FESTIVAL GIACOMETTI
THE CREATIVE MOVEMENT GRACING ALENTEJO

Festival Giacometti is about nurturing roots and bringing forth new shoots, loving and honouring the elderly, giving voice to the youth, valuing our region’s material and immaterial heritage, and promoting the exchange of local experiences and knowledge with people from all origins. In this vast flat land at the European extreme west, we want to be what we are, solemn and dauntless.

The festival offers a diverse program of music, art, anthropology, cinema, dance and gastronomy. This annual event embraces cultural challenges through the presentation of national and international events of different contemporary expression, marrying together tradition and innovation.
Festival Giacometti is distinguished with the title Premium Event by Turismo Portugal in 2019.

7th edition – to be held in June 2027

On 2025, the curator for the 6th edition was José Barros, a leading figure in the revitalisation of traditional Portuguese music and its adaptation to contemporary tastes, and will also be under the general direction of Maria João Pina, head of the Culture Division of Ferreira do Alentejo Town Council.

MICHEL GIACOMETTI

The ethnomusicologist personality that gives name to the festival, although born in Corsica, has realised remarkable research and investigation in Portugal, famous for its contribution to popular culture – oral tradition, music, dance and traditional medicine.

There is a strong link between Michel Giacometti and Ferreira do Alentejo where, in 1968, he made several collections based on his extensive research of the traditional choral singing known as "Cante Alentejano" in the local communities of Peroguarda, Ferreira and Figueira dos Cavaleiros. The deep bonds he established with the locals, especially in Peroguarda, where he kept several close friends, saw him choose the small white village as his last address.