Cultural events in Lisbon
 

I thought I would just post separately with a link to two great sources of information to learn what's going on in Lisbon in terms of concerts, etc.

The first is the monthly cultural agenda, published by the City of Lisbon. It lists all kinds of events, free and those with an entrance charge. Over the last few months, this is how we found about about a lot of great free concerts -- organ concerts in the cathedral, a series of holiday concerts in various old churches in Lisbon, Handel's Messiah in the Jeronimos monastery. It's also how I found out about the concert to be given this week by one of my favorite Spanish singers from the 70s, and about a re-creation of Amalia Rodrigues' last concert in the Olympia in Paris. It was performed by a series of older and younger fado singers (including her sister, and Mariza, the big international fado star).

The Cultural Agenda is in Portuguese, but the tabs on the right hand side are pretty self-explanatory:

http://www.agendalx.pt/cgi-bin/iportal_agendalx

The other source is the biggest ticket seller, Ticketline:

http://www.ticketline.pt/

They do have an English site. I have bought several tickets there for pick up at the box office using my US credit card and address and have never had a problem.

There's lots to do in Lisbon! Laurie

Thanks Laurie. We're planning our trip to Portugal for September and this is the kind of info we need!

Those look like great sources. I just bought guidebooks to Portugal this weekend. I don't know when I'm going exactly, but I've now placed these in my favorites for Portugal so I can see what's going on.

Thanks for the links!

Here's one more source. The bull ring in central Lisbon underwent a massive renovation that took years. It was turned into a venue for a wide range of cultural events -- its retractable roof and floors mean, I think, that bull fights can still take place, while it has many other different types of performances including standard concerts.

On the ground floor, there are now many outdoor cafes and restaurants and they are a good distance from car traffic, so it's very pleasant.

There are also several lower levels of shopping.

The events taking place here are also going to come up in the other two sources I posted, but since some might find the building interesting enough to be a destination in its own right, you can see what else is going on there on this site:

http://www.campopequeno.com/

At the bottom of the web page, you can get information on stores (lojas), restaurants, etc. in the commercial part, and on the top of the page you can find out about upcoming attractions.

Thanks for the info, Laurie. I went past the bull ring on the bus, but didn't realize it hosted more than bull fights.

Laurie, would you know the best way to get the dates of the various festivals in Portugal? I've tried a couple of websites I found through Google but not very helpful.

Hi, Lily,

I found something with a Portuguese language search on Google-portugal. It seems to be a pretty comprehensive listing of town, name of festival and date. I think the search is pretty clear even though it's in Portuguese, but if you have any problem with it, let me know.

This listing will give you the date, name, and place, but you'll have to do some independent searching to find out what actually goes on there. Hope this helps.

http://www.guiadeportugal.pt/default...ro_ClassID=400

Laurie

Thanks Laurie, you are very helpful!

Just wanted to put in another plug for these websites. We found out about a festival in Oeiras (about 18 km away, between Lisbon and Cascais) on ticketline and were able to snag third row seats for a Mariza (fado) concert last night.

The concert was held outside, in the gardens of the palace of the Marques de Pombal in old Oeiras. We got there early and had a very good seafood dinner on the small pedestrianized street in town, and the concert was just incredible. For one number, Mariza came down off the stage and sang about 8 feet away from us. She is a truly amazing performer. You should keep an eye out for her even if you don't make it to Portugal. She travels frequently to the US and my daughter has seen her twice, once in Atlanta and once in DC.

Laurie