FATACIL attracted over 200,000 visitors, with tickets selling out on Saturday for the first time in the fair’s 43-year history
This year’s FATACIL fair attracted over 200,000 visitors to Lagoa between August 16 and 25 in what proved to be a historic edition after tickets sold out on Saturday, August 24 for the first time in the event’s 43-year history.
With the crowd-pulling brother duo Calema as the musical guest on Saturday, the fair attracted so many visitors that some people who had purchased tickets online had to be turned away, as the venue had reached its maximum capacity. Traffic in Lagoa was also brought to a standstill, with queues forming on the EN125 and all the way to the A22 motorway. All visitors who were turned away were encouraged to use their ticket to return on Sunday, the fair’s closing day.
“The constant monitoring of entries and the number of tickets sold online led to the decision to suspend sales to ensure safety above all else,” said Lagoa mayor Luís Encarnação in a statement to the press released this Wednesday (August 28). He explained that organisers had to “adjust some areas which accessed the main stage” to ensure that “everything went well.”
Overall, the number of ticket sales across the fair’s 10 days increased 16% compared to last year, with the increase of the fair’s venue area believed to have played an important role in the successful results. A new stage, ‘Palco Algarve’, where local artists performed helped “diversify” the event’s programme, which featured “several shows and activities at the same time for different audiences,” said the mayor, adding that the goal in recent years has been to “innovate and make FATACIL more dynamic” so that visitors feel like “they cannot see everything in one day and will want to come back the next day.”
Encarnação also thanked “everyone who made another successful edition of FATACIL possible,” from GNR police and volunteer firefighters to the event’s institutional and business partners, as well as the municipal council workers, who “work tirelessly to organise the biggest event in the south of the country.”
The 2025 edition of FATACIL is already being worked on, with the goal of hosting the “best edition ever once again”. According to the mayor, the goal is to start booking the “best artists” and identifying what can be improved upon, coming up with new ideas and looking at how the venue can be made even more “spacious, attractive and safe.”
