The Estreito Câmara de Lobos Parish Council and Estreito Cultural and Recreational Association (ACRE) has announced that, in view of the current pandemic and due to health and safety guidelines with regards to social distancing, they have cancelled the Estreito 2020 Harvest Festival which was scheduled to take place between the 11th and 13th of September in the village of Estreito de Câmara de Lobos.
The cancellation was confirmed this afternoon (21.07) on the Parish Council of the Estreito de Câmara de Lobos Facebook page. This stated that as part of a collective decision between all the entities involved, they have decided that the usual religious festivities and thematic parties will not be held throughout the parishes of Câmara de Lobos. It went on to say that they want to ‘contribute to the success of the fight against Covid-19, through the promotion of social distancing and in view of the current situation, it would not make sense to schedule the Estreito Grape Harvest Festival. The recent ending of the state of emergency, the worldwide situation in respect of the virus and the increased number of cases of the virus in the island due to an increase in tourism were all contributory factors.
The organisation stressed that in 2021, it hopes that everything will be able to return to some form of normality. However, and to keep tradition alive, the present “edition” of the Estreito Grape Harvest Festival will only be celebrated with decorative effects, such as new flags in the village of Estreito, ornamental exhibitions including a fence comprising of 600 bunches of grapes and hanging baskets, as well as an exhibition in the Centro Cívico do Estreito.
Samantha Gannon
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