Luís Filipe Menezes confirmed that the MEO Marés Vivas festival will leave the municipality after refusing to give in to pressure from promoters to keep the event in Madalena. Menezes had proposed a new location within the municipality, but organizers rejected the change.
The mayor of Gaia revealed this Saturday that the MEO Marés Vivas festival will leave the municipality and that his counterpart in Matosinhos expressed a willingness to “negotiate” with the promoters of that event.
In a post on his official page on the social network Facebook, Luís Filipe Menezes begins by recalling that, during the electoral campaign, he stated that the festival would be relocated from the parish of Madalena to the “interior of the municipality”.
Menezes says he presented “a magnificent location within the municipality, next to CREP [Circular Regional Exterior do Porto] with better access and parking” but having been pressured and even blackmailed “to change the commitment made to the people in the electoral campaign”.
“The pressure and threat from many emissaries with the news that the festival was going to move to another municipality was daily”, writes Menezes who says he gave “everyone” the “same answer” that “the Mayor of Gaia only has one word and no businessman is in charge here”.
The mayor argues that “the entire territory deserves equal treatment and success does not depend on the location but on the cast” hired, even writing that “Mick Jagger in Olival would always have a bigger audience than a small band in the center of the country’s capital”.
“So, we embark on a new cycle, but with a clear conscience of our honorable word and with the certainty that if we take a year apart, no one will die and that we will come back even stronger with a great initiative”, he highlights.
Regarding this new cycle, he says that this year, in Gaia, the Air Race and the Port Wine Fest will be guaranteed, events “that will have more than 20 times more audience than the late festival”.
The mayor also talks about a “different and much better São João”, weekly entertainment throughout the summer in Jardim do Morro and Beira Mar, adding that “everything leads us to believe that it will be this year” that there will be “the first music festival within the municipality, which will grow over time and crush the arrogance of those who thought they were in charge”.
Menezes ends the publication by revealing that the Mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro, “was kind enough” to ask if she could negotiate with “these traders” and that her answer “was yes”.
Also on social media, the opposition councilor in the Chamber of Gaia, the socialist João Paulo Correia, pointed out, in light of Menezes’ publication, that “unfortunately” Gaia had lost Marés Vivas to Matosinhos, something that he does not consider unexpected or surprising.
“Every week a setback, a step back. We live in a cycle of stop, cut and take away. This time one of the best brands associated with Vila Nova de Gaia falls, which marked and united several generations”, he criticizes.
On social media, on the MEO Marés Vivas page, a post can be read: “a new tide is coming”.
On July 20, 2025, on the last day of the 18th edition of Marés Vivas, the director of PEV Entertainment announced that the Vila Nova de Gaia festival would return on July 17, 18 and 19, 2026.
The 18th edition of the festival was sold out over the three days, with 120,000 people passing through the venue, according to the person responsible at the time.
