Expo 2020 hosts Lusophonia Festival in celebration of the Portuguese language
Expo 2020 Dubai will host from 14-16 October the Lusophonia Festival – a unique celebration of the Portuguese language which will take visitors on a journey through the music, dance, and culture of Portuguese-speaking communities.
During the three-day festival, artists from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor will take to the stage at Expo’s Jubilee Stage to showcase the diversity of peoples and cultures bound together by the Portuguese language.
The Lusophonia Festival will take place between 4pm – 11pm on October 14, 15 and 16. The line-up includes Marco Rodrigues, Portuguese fado singer; Tito Paris, a Cape Verdean musician living in Portugal; Sopa de Pedra, a female a capella group with an original take on traditional Portuguese music; and Danças Ocultas, a quartet of diatonic accordionists from northern Portugal.
The event will also feature special performances from Angola, including Ary, Calabeto and Daniel Nascimento; the singer General João Seria and duo Filipe Santo & Olinda Beja, from São Tomé and Príncipe; Jomalu, from Mozambique; the Guinean trio formed by Patchi Di Rima, Rui Sangará and Atanásio Hatchuen; the band Cores de Aidê, from Brazil, among many others (see the full line-up here).
The Minister of Culture of Portugal, Graça Fonseca, will be present during these days at Expo 2020 Dubai.
In the year in which the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) celebrates its 25th anniversary, the Lusophonia Festival at Expo will be a symbolic celebration of Portuguese language that, according to UNESCO, is spoken by more than 260 million people in five continents, making it the fifth most widespread language in the world.