Festa de São João, One of Europe’s Biggest Street Festivals
By Stephen Bugno
For one night every year, the city of Porto, Portugal goes absolutely wild. The celebration—Festa de São João—or Feast of St. John’s Eve, takes place on the evening of June 23rd and goes to the daylight hours of the 24th. On this night, seemingly the entire population comes to the city center and surrounding neighborhoods to honor John the Baptist and partake in the evening’s numerous traditions.
Although relatively unknown outside Portugal, Festa de São João is undoubtedly one of Europe’s biggest street celebrations. No matter their economic standing, age, or race, Porto’s citizens come out as equals to generate an unrivaled atmosphere that erupts in the city’s public plazas, squeezes through the steep, narrow, cobbled streets, and surges down to the river.
Try the Food
Traditions
Oddly enough, one of the stranger traditions of the festival is the hitting of each other over the head with plastic hammers that squeak; or if you prefer, dangling a leek for the initiated to smell. Where these traditions comes from, no one has an answer.
The Walk to the Beach


Traditionally, festival-goers slowly make their way by foot along the river several miles out to the beaches at the edge of Porto where a parallel, slightly alternative São João party is taking place. Here, out past the modern suburbs, young people continue dancing to the techno thump until well after sunrise.
The Portuguese like to say that “Lisbon plays, Braga prays and Porto works,” but on the night of Festa de São João, it is Porto that celebrates.
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