The mayor of Alcoutim, Paulo Paulino, told Lusa the organisation decided to alter the festival, and instead of schedule is for the Winter as usual, opted to divide it into two parts, the first between August 17th and 19th, and the second between September 21st and 23rd, renaming it to “Trekkers – Experiences on the Border.”

The goal is to run the festival during a time in which “there’s more people around” and when fruits like fig and almond are picked, creating a “different offer” to what traditionally exists at this time of year and that can, in future editions, offer experiences like going to pick the fruits themselves.

“We chose the Summer for this experience. In Winter we have a series of events, like the Contraband Festival, and we wanted to create a different kind of offer in the summer months, for who’s here on holiday,” the county’s vice-president explained.

The organisation wants to make use of the fig, almond and honey of the season to “let the festival stop being just about pure and tough hiking and turns into a festival of experiences.”

The August period has some associated concerns, he admitted, such as high temperatures and risk of fire, which can impede activities in forest trails. For that reason, a program was prepared which will “lean more towards nocturnal hikes related to astronomy.”

“We will carefully see how it goes,” Paulo Paulino stated, clearing up that, in case of an impediment in August, the festival’s occurrence would be up for debate, with the possibility of it still being carried out on September’s dates.

In the end, “we’ll see which of the two periods has more demand,” because “three weeks can make a difference.”

Paulo Paulino also noted the importance of cooperation across the border between Alcoutim municipality and the neighbouring municipality of Sanlúcar de Guadiana, a Spanish settlement from which Alcoutim is physically separated by the Guadiana River.

This collaboration has also been developed under the umbrella of a mechanism called “Border Mark,” developed by the two municipalities in order to make “tourists who visit Alcoutim also visit Sanlúcar, and vice-versa,” he underlined.

“We have excellent scenery from Alcoutim to Sanlúcar, but we also have excellent sunsets from Sanlúcar to Alcoutim. They’re different planes, with the common element being the Guadiana River,” the Algarvian county’s vice-president added, considering the union to have “worked very well,” having been “a lever for the two lands’ development.”