LISBON WAS in a festive mood last week for World Magic Day on August 28 and a series of colourful animated activities which culminated on Sunday in Terreiro do Paço.
The city’s Largo de Camões was chosen as the stage for the second edition of the annual World Street Magic Festival which was promoted and sponsored by Lisbon Camâra and insurance giant Allianz Portugal.
The streets of Lisbon were filled with magical events until Sunday with acrobats, magicians, illusionists and jugglers.
Rosália Vargas, one of the organisers, said that the whole point of the event was to “bring expression and a lot of magic to the streets around the Baixa in Lisbon.”
“A city should be alive with colour, sounds and music and should be a creative meeting place for people and the imagination,” she added.
The week long festival set the Câmara and Allianz back around 50,000 euros but was worth it in terms of both entertainment and the way it stimulated the public’s curiosity and involved them in the magic activities.
Throughout the six-day initiative, 24 magicians were out and about in the streets, as well as a magic theatre company, carrying out a total of 174 different activities in ten different places in the heart of the Baixa.
The places in Lisbon chosen included Largo de Camões, Largo do Chiado, Rua Augusta, Rua Garret, Praça de Figueira, Largo 1º de Dezembro, Praça do Teatro São Carlos, Largo de São Domingos, Rossio and Terreiro do Paço which was closed to traffic on Sunday.
Theatrical artists and illusionists took part from all over the World including Germany, Argentina, Spain, United States, France, United Kingdom, Sweden and Portugal.
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