Alvor’s yearly carnival will heal your soul

The carnival is organised by Soul in the Algarve, managed by Viv Brown, which itself is a yearly festival dedicated to soul music. Delving into its origins, she told Central Magazine “I’ve been doing events in London for 30 years, that’s called Soul Network, it started as just little monthly parties of soul music for people of my age group, and 10 years into it I wondered if we could do something like this in a different country”.

“I did a lot of research to find somewhere where we could have a party on the beach, and Caniço popped onto my radar”, she continued. Caniço is a bar attached to the Prainha hotel complex in Alvor, located inside a cave on the coastline with a beach within it. “When I came to Portugal, I fell in love, and I thought this was the perfect place.”

Soul in the Algarve

This year will be the 20th anniversary of Soul in the Algarve, a major milestone in the story of this event. The beginning of the carnival, though, dates back to the halfway point of its history up until today. “On the 10th anniversary, I wanted to do something a little bit special”, she explained.

“We went to the Junta at the time, and it got a bit lost in translation, I think”, she recounted. “He said something about a parade, and I thought, I better do a parade then, shouldn’t I… it kind of went from there.”

The carnival welcomes people of all ages and walks of life, its spirit reinvigorated again after the struggles of 2020 and 2021, when, due to concerns around social distancing, Soul in the Algarve was unable to go ahead. “Recovery was slow and hard, but it does seem like now we’re back.”

To Viv, one of the highlights of these events is that she can play her own music. “I’m a DJ, I used to play on pirate radio stations back in the 80s, and I’ve been into soul music since I was a child, really, buying 7-inch singles from WHSmiths”, she reminisced. “I play at my own events all the time, that’s the icing on the cake.”

The parade

Guests at the carnival dress up in anything from casual bright clothes to full-on costumes you’d see in Rio de Janeiro and dance their cares away, but the event itself has its own concerns. “It’s been absolutely brilliant, but we’re at the point where we really need sponsors”, Viv stated. “It’s been me funding it for 10 years out of the business of Soul in the Algarve. I’ve had a little bit of help from really generous people in the village, but it’s not enough to keep the event going, so we’re desperately looking for backers for it to continue.”

The SITA Carnival 2025 will take place on the 25 May, spreading the sound of soul all across Alvor. “In this day and age, it’s about putting the love out there”, she expressed. “The music is fantastic because it brings people together, it puts you in the moment.”

“If everybody lived their life like in the Carnival, if the world was like that, there’d be no problems, no war, no nothing”, she concluded. “People are there just to be happy.”

To find out more about this uplifting yearly event, please visit https://soulinthealgarve.com/

A journalist that’s always eager to learn about new things. With a passion for travel, adventure and writing about this diverse world of ours.

“Wisdom begins in wonder” -  Socrates

Kate Sreenarong