Faro City festivals join the DeclareAção movement

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The biggest Portuguese music festivals promoters, including the people behind Festival F and Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival, joined the promoters of other Portuguese festivals in an unprecedented movement, seeking to challenge people to adopt behaviour conducive to a healthier and more viable society.

DeclareAção is the first declaration that can only be “signed” through actions. This unprecedented movement, which was presented by the Lisbon Municipal Council, coincides with the European Green Capital Award for 2020, seeking to challenge the citizens of Portugal to adopt behaviour conducive to a fairer and more balanced society, using digital platforms and their mobilising potential as their main uniting channel.
DeclareAção is, therefore, a national movement working to raise awareness of what we need for a better world, launched by 15 entities including Better World (promoter of Rock in Rio), Loulé Municipal Council (organiser of the MED Festival), Sines Municipal Council (promoter of FMM Sines), Everything is New (promoter of NOS Alive), Live Experiences (responsible for EDPCOOLJAZZ and ID NO LIMITS), MOT (organiser of RFM SOMNII), Música no Coração (promoter of the Galp Beach Party, Super Bock Super Rock, Super Bock in Stock, MEO Sudoeste and Sumol Summer Fest Festivals), PEV (promoter of MEO Marés Vivas), Pic Nic (promoter of NOS Primavera Sound), Ritmos (promoter of Vodafone Paredes de Coura), Faro Municipal Council (organiser of Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival and Festival F) and Sons em Trânsito (Festival F), Surprise & Expectation (EDP Vilar de Mouros), APEFE and APORFEST, which are now challenging public and private companies and entities, from all sectors, to join to the cause.​

To create this “declaration of actions”, the entities will challenge young leaders from all over the country to produce 17 approaches from a single workshop. These approaches, which will be based on the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), will focus on areas as wide-ranging as climate change, diversity, social inclusion, economic development and recycling, among others, working towards achieving each one with a view to actively contributing to building a better world.
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The process used to select these young people will be made up of three phases:

1. The first will be in a quantitative and qualitative, ethnographically validated, study, to pinpoint young leaders who have an active voice in their communities.
2. Once these young people, aged between 16 and 30, have been identified, 30 will be selected from across the country, ensuring a diversity of genders, nationalities, social classes and education levels.
3. In a third stage, the newly formed group will be challenged by Torke CC methodology (proven in more than 300 workshops, in 14 different countries), in a Workshop where they will collaboratively work to develop “approaches” based on the SDGs. 

The selection of young people and workshop will both take place next February, with the 17 approaches scheduled to be announced in early March. At that point, the approaches decided upon by the youth collective will be turned into GIFs, which shall be used as DeclareAção’s digital “signature”. A landing page will also be launched in parallel, that will act as a hub, attracting positive attitudes, a focus point of all the actions put in place by companies, schools, influencers and the general public, shared on social media using GIFs and the hashtag #DeclareAcao.
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Festival F DeclareAção
Festival F jumped at the chance to be linked to the DeclareAção project. Holding a festival in the historic centre of the city, which draws in and brings life to the city's built heritage, encompasses its residents and visitors and embraces a natural park, is undoubtedly a challenge from a sustainability perspective. Festival F wants to grow and assert itself in this area, ensuring the waste produced is reduced and separated, the use of recyclable cups, that single-use materials are minimised, that public and specific transport is provided, and that conditions are created that allow all audiences, regardless of their limitations, to enjoy this unique festival.”
Paulo Santos, Deputy Mayor of Faro, and Vasco Sacramento, Sons em Trânsito (Festival F)
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​Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival DeclareAção
Faro also hosts a second event linked to this manifesto: the Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival in which “one of the main pillars is sustainability, alongside the community and art. The festival invites us to look at the city from a different perspective. Faro submitted an application to Creative Europa, that puts forward the idea of thinking about cities from above”, explained Paulo Santos.
​“For Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival, an event in which one of the main pillars is Sustainability, alongside the Community and Art, being part of a project like DeclareAção is putting it back in its “natural environment”. It is within these confines that Açoteia invites you to rediscover the rooftops of the city of Faro, inspiring a new vision of these locales in the areas of energy efficiency, water reuse and urban gardens, as well as incentivising the opening of those spaces to the community, using art as a means through which to reinterpret them and gain a new perspective of the city.”
Paulo Santos, Deputy Mayor of Faro (Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival)

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​In 2019, 287 music festivals were held in Portugal alone, welcoming a total of 2.1 million attendees. Along with this study, data produced by Forbes indicates that 94% of Generation Z say that music is very important in their lives, while 45% say that their favourite artist influences their lifestyle. Spotify data shows that 79% of users believe that music allows people to connect with each other and with other cultures. As such, the potential of festivals to influence and transform both the local and national communities in which they are held couldn’t be more evident, as well as their responsibility to foster positive attitudes that contribute to building a better world.
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