Avante! - Avante! Festival

Every year (since 1976), during the first weekend of September, the Avante! Festival (Portuguese: Festa do Avante!) takes place. After rotating through different locations around Lisbon, including the FIL Park, Ajuda or Loures, the festival now has a home in Amora, a town near Seixal, on grounds bought by the Communist Party after a massive fundraising campaign in the early 1990s. The campaign was considered by the PCP as the only way to avoid the boycott organised by the owners of the previous festival grounds, which resulted, in 1987, with the festival not being carried out in its 11th year.

The festival usually boasts participation from hundreds of thousands of visitors, making the outside of the grounds seem like a giant camping park. The events themselves consist of a three-day festival of music, with hundreds of Portuguese and international bands and artists across five different stages, ethnography, gastronomy, debates, a book & music fair, theatre (Avanteatro) and sporting events. Several foreign communist parties also participate.

In 28 editions, the Festival counted with the presence of several famous artists, either Portuguese or foreign, like Chico Buarque, Baden Powell, Ivan Lins, Zeca Afonso, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Holly Near, Johnny Clegg, Charlie Haden, Judy Collins, Richie Havens, Tom Paxton, The Soviet Circus Company, the Kuban Cossacks Choir, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Band, Hevia, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Carlos Paredes, Jorge Palma, Manoel de Oliveira and many others.