Girl, do we have news for you today! In less than a week, Festival dos Canais will once again take over Aveiro for five days of music, street theatre, new circus and performance, all for free and taking place in the public space. And, once again, VIC NIC will be participating with two areas of its own, just as we have since the festival’s second edition back in 2017.
While our modus operandi will remain faithful to our pirate-utopia envisioning, a significant functional mutation has fallen upon us this year: Sala de Estar—located at Praça da República—will remain a quintessential meeting spot for the festival, but Funky Beach—a beloved area, formerly located in the garden across from VIC—is dead, buried, gone.
Nevertheless, the words of Lavoisier—”Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”—seem to keep shining brightly over us, as the late Funky Beach also gave way to a freshly-brewed area: Tropicália. Located at Jardim das Oliveiras, on the rooftop of Forum Aveiro, Tropicália will surrender the sand but retain the same laid-back character and weird/tropical music vibes of its predecessor. Our lovely, hard-working, hard-partying crew will, of course, be there to make you feel right at home.
FUNKY BEACH IS DEAD. LONG LIVE TROPICÁLIA!
Chosen for the name of this festival area as an explicit reference to the influential Brazilian arts movement, the word Tropicália was coined in 1967 by Hélio Oiticica and soon afterwards popularised by artists such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Torquato Neto, José Carlos Capinam, Os Mutantes, Glauber Rocha, and José Celso Martinez Corrêa, among many others.
While we take full responsibility for the change in name—which had actually been in the works for some time now—we must confess that the change of location (and the resulting disappearance of the sand) is neither our responsibility nor that of the festival’s direction. Rather, it is the consequence of reconstruction works having either started sooner than expected or not having been communicated in a timely manner. We leave it to you to guess who actually f****d that up. Regardless, keep reading if you want to know about the outrageous music programming we’ve prepared for you this year.
WEDNESDAY 15
15:00 Marzia Bruno (Museu de Aveiro) @ Sala de Estar [Sob Escuta]
17:00 Bobby Ital (UK) @ Tropicália [DJ]
22:00 Shanty Town Selectas (UK) @ Sala de Estar [DJ]
THURSDAY 16
15:00 Leonor Barata (Teatro Aveirense) @ Sala de Estar [Sob Escuta]
17:00 Cutty Wren (UK) @ Tropicália [DJ]
22:00 Voodoo @ Sala de Estar [DJ]
FRIDAY 17
15:00 João Neto e Inês Hermenegildo (GrETUA) @ Sala de Estar [Sob Escuta]
17:00 Lagoss DJ @ Tropicália [DJ]
18:00 LOVE BOAT (IT/FR) @ Tropicália [LIVE!]
22:30 Salt City Breakers @ Sala de Estar [DJ]
SATURDAY 18
15:00 Jorge Loura (Troll’s Toy) @ Sala de Estar [Sob Escuta]
17:00 DJ Clod b2b DJ P @ Tropicália [DJ]
18:00 LAGOSS (ES) @ Tropicália [LIVE!]
22:30 Quartzo Minguante @ Sala de Estar [DJ]
SUNDAY 19
15:00 Ana Salgueiro (CETA) @ Sala de Estar [Sob Escuta]
17:00 Pânico Orgânico @ Tropicália [DJ]
18:00 CAVEIRAS (IT) @ Tropicália [LIVE!]
22:00 King Fu @ Sala de Estar [DJ]
Sob Escuta
Building on the success of this project over the last couple of editions, Sob Escuta is back at Sala de Estar! Every afternoon from 15:00 to 16:30, a local arts and culture professional will bravely present a selection of their favourite songs to the city. This year, we're delighted to welcome Ana Salgueiro (CETA), João Neto and Inês Hermenegildo (GrETUA), Jorge Loura (Troll's Toy), Leonor Barata (Teatro Aveirense), and Marzia Bruno (Museu de Aveiro) to the DJ booth.
LIVE!
From Friday 17th to Sunday 19th, at 18:00, Tropicália will be home to some of the freshest and weirdest live music shows that we could find:
The LOVE BOAT (IT/FR) rude buoys will invite us to come aboard their cruise of love, fun, and their very own blend of romantic classics with contemporary dance music: banger alert!
LAGOSS (ES) definitely put the weird into the tropical. The trio founded in Tenerife by Discrepant’s Gonçalo F. Cardoso and Canarian experimental scene veterans Mladen Kurajica and Daniel García will leave no palm tree unturned.
Inspired by the 1960s Brazilian outlaw cinema and Quimbanda culture, CAVEIRAS (IT) are known to set the stage on fire with their mix of dub, industrial and post-punk with obsessive Afro-Brazilian and exotica rhythms.
DJs
Every afternoon at 17:00, Tropicália will host a fine blend of DJs and selectors — Bobby Ital (UK), Cutty Wren (UK), DJ Clod (FR), DJ P (IT), Lagoss DJ (PT), and Pânico Orgânico (PT) — who will indulge us with their relaxed, sunshine-ready sound waves, spanning styles such as dub, afrobeat, bossa nova, and the most tropical electronica.
Every evening from 22:00, Sala de Estar becomes the festival’s bustling dance floor, showcasing both local acts — such as emerging talent Voodoo and residents Salt City Breakers (Goty VS Fulano47) — as well as national and international guests, including King Fu (OMEGA3 – Braga), Quartzo Minguante (DJ Princesa VS DJ Bapetismo – Porto), and the mighty Shanty Town Selectas (UK).
Reclaim the streets!
Sand or no sand, join us once again for five days of surprising music, upcycled constructions, exquisite daiquiris, cosy décor, occupation of public space, and no-bullshit celebration. Here's where you'll find us:
