Nuno Laranja: Millions and millions

Despite my severely poor economic condition I found some good company and managed to attend at least one of this summer's music festivals. Milhões de Festa is a relatively young festival taking place in the small historical city of Barcelos. A very cheap ticket with free camping included and about an hour long car drive were the perfect conditions to make my small budget happy. The line-up was pretty solid. Even though we only attended one day of the festival the expectations were pretty high. Just check out the poster for the names:

Pretty hip, huh? But it seems this country has a severe lack of hipsters. I mean, the festival's organization was top notch, a lot of security, unconventional and spacious venues, etc. But all this for a couple of hundred people?! It made everything look like a waste of money (regardless of all the big institutional sponsoring). Let's hope for a growing attendance in the future. Otherwise it will go extinct just like the life-sized Velociraptor replica they had on top of the ticket office drawing attention.

After assembling the tent for our one night stay we went to the first afternoon shows at the swimming pool venue. This was honestly the best part of the festival! Taking a refreshing dive on a really hot sultry day and emerging to the sound of Belle and Sebastian's A Summer Wasting playing during the last DJ set...

Bizarre performance during the Feia Medronho show at the pool. Photo by Fábio Costanza.

Good vibes at the pool stage.

After a small walk through the almost desert city centre and a quick dinner at the typical restaurant it was time for the big acts at the two other main stages in the river valley. A few fun live shows later we were expecting headlining band The Fall to enter the stage. Whoa, how did Mark E. Smith get so old? Oh yeah, it's been almost 30 years since the release of Hex Enduction Hour. Good old man presented us with an okay (read: disappointing) performance. I guess he wasn't really happy with such a sparse and indifferent audience and decided to end it as quickly as possible leaving us all underwhelmed. What a pity. But it's understandable. I mean, what's up with all those kids starting a mosh pit? These are post-punk veterans The Fall; Electric Wizard was yesterday, kids. (Don't get me wrong, I don't mind me some Dopethrone.) And crowd surfing? Seriously? Did you notice that the same guys who lift you up were the same that put you down again? Next time check out how dense the audience is before you hit with your head on the ground again. That was hilarious though.

No ground-breaking music but local band Alto! gave us an entertaining live show.

The Fall - Highly expected, quickly forgotten. Photo by groo-7

Nevertheless, it was a great weekend and totally worth it! Let's keep an eye out for this event and hope more people find their way to Barcelos for the upcoming editions.