June 24th was the Festa de São João in Ribeira de Julião, a town in São Vicente. I work in the town of Ribeira de Julião so I had the day off which was really nice and allowed me to check out the festa which I have never been to.
The 24th of June is the feast of São João Baptista, aka John the Baptist, and he is the patron saint of the town Ribeira de Julião, as well as another town on the island of Santo Antão. So in order to honor him both of the towns throw a huge party.
Ribeira de Julião is transformed into a small little city, barracas (make shift restaurants) are set up along the main dirt road, the smoke from their grills permeates the air as you walk through with the constant beating of drums. Parades of drummers and people wearing giant boats walk through the crowd. I particularly liked the drummer wearing industrial ear muffs.
Small vendors sell juices, grouge (of course), and necklaces made of peanuts, popcorn and coffee beans. In the middle of the main street, people set up tables for gambling, a game where you put money on a number. The gambling appeared to be legal, but they did seem to pick up their tables every once in a while to move to another location, perhaps for more customers but I couldn’t help but think of the people in NYC selling bags on the street and just picking up all of their things and running from the police.
The 24th of June is the feast of São João Baptista, aka John the Baptist, and he is the patron saint of the town Ribeira de Julião, as well as another town on the island of Santo Antão. So in order to honor him both of the towns throw a huge party.
Ribeira de Julião is transformed into a small little city, barracas (make shift restaurants) are set up along the main dirt road, the smoke from their grills permeates the air as you walk through with the constant beating of drums. Parades of drummers and people wearing giant boats walk through the crowd. I particularly liked the drummer wearing industrial ear muffs.
Small vendors sell juices, grouge (of course), and necklaces made of peanuts, popcorn and coffee beans. In the middle of the main street, people set up tables for gambling, a game where you put money on a number. The gambling appeared to be legal, but they did seem to pick up their tables every once in a while to move to another location, perhaps for more customers but I couldn’t help but think of the people in NYC selling bags on the street and just picking up all of their things and running from the police.
At the far end of the town there was a contest for the best coladeira dancers. The Coladeira is a famous dance usually danced just during this festa. It goes something like this: side step to the left twice, side step to the right twice, do a little spin and then do the cola (bump your partner with your pelvis) See picture below for a slightly better explanation.
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