Festivities and Sustainable Development in Baixo Alentejo (Portugal)

Abstract

In recent decades we have seen the emergence of festive inventions as a factor of sustainable development in rural contexts, associated with the dissemination and promotion of cultural products and practices, expressing different motivations. In Portugal and Spain, the relationship between festivals, music, and sustainable development was the object of study, based on musical celebrations that allow the creation of formal networks and participatory models between cultural agents, musicians, and community members. With this text I intend to question the phenomenon of the festive invention in the Baixo Alentejo (Portugal) as a strategy of sustainable development, focusing on the Islamic Festival of Mértola and the “Noche Flamenca” of Barrancos, taking into account the motivations and impact of organized parties and promoted by municipalities and cultural agents, in the construction of possible futures.