Dear friends!

We welcome you all to the 5th edition of the International Song Festival of Serra da Estrela.

5 years correspond to one cycle. And the pre-balance that we can do now (the final balance will be made after this edition) is positive. Forgive the immodesty of those who judge in own cause, but the echoes come from outside: words of recognition from the most disparate sites, from participants who passed through Seia and wish to return to the International Song Festival of Serra da Estrela.

The ambitions that we revealed in the "start" of our first edition (professional rigor, quality of the artistic content and an attractive playful component) were achieved. This recognition, coming from those we work for, gave us more confidence and security in the preparation of this edition, the fifth, of the Festival.

In a progressive way, from year to year, we feel that the Festival is becoming embedded in the social and cultural tissue of the host community. With Seia centred in the heart of Serra da Estrela, and from Serra da Estrela toward to the World, in each edition of the Festival is surpassed the number of young local competitors. Simultaneously, the number of foreign and Portuguese participants from other regions of our country is also increasing.

This realization (we no longer call it “initiative”…) would not have been possible without the support that, from the first hour, was never denied by three entities: the Municipality of Seia (which leveraged the project), the Union of Parishes of Seia, São Romão and Lapa dos Dinheiros and the Tourism Centre of Portugal. To these three institutional entities is added the support from a number of local and national firms and companies, who see in the Festival a door for the development and progress of a region, an instrument in a global struggle to stop the desertification of the interior of the country.

We are going to receive very well those who, between 20 and 25 August, visit our Festival: those who do it for the first time and those who return to it. Be all very welcome!

Nuno Figueira

Director of the Festival 

After four years of growing success, we start now the 5th International Song Festival of Serra da Estrela with pride and redoubled motivation. In fact, it is a winning bet, which gives prestige to the county of Seia and to the region.

The quality and artistic creativity that we are already accustomed, the high number of foreign participants and the involvement of young local artists, who, from year to year, gain expression in this meeting, give this event the grandeur of other festivals in Europe.

To the young talents, as the main actors of the festival, especially to the significant number of local participants, I wish a  fruitful and  enriching

journey. Above all, this intercultural meeting should also be an opportunity for conviviality, exchange of experiences and personal enrichment, in a competition that is expected to be fruitful and healthy.

It is also our wish that all those who visit us can enjoy the best the county has to offer. Surrounded by the largest national protected area – the Natural Park of Serra da Estrela, ambassador of a unique natural and landscape patrimony, this mountain territory has unique conditions for leisure, bathing, recreation and enjoyment of nature through a vast network of river beaches, over 100 km of walking and cycle paths.

Also in culture, through a diversified network of equipment, such as the Toy Museum, the Natural Electricity Museum, the Bread Museum and, more interpretatively, the CISE (the Interpretation Centre of Serra da Estrela), and... the gastronomy: Cheese of Serra da Estrela, Requeijão de Seia, Rye Bread, Broa and Black Cake of Loriga, Sausages and Goat Serrano, and a set of cultural, sports and social initiatives are reasons for a visit in the four seasons of the year.

A word of recognition to the organization of the Festival and all the partners who join the initiative, which allow to continue to perform in Seia a high quality show.

To the citizens of Seia I leave an appeal to be present in the Great Final that takes place on the last day of the festival (24th August, at 9PM), in the certainty that they will not regret.

Mayor of Seia 

Filipe Camelo