Madeira Islands Walking Festival
12th to 16th January

MOF 2010 - Madeira Orienteering Festival
26th to 28th January

Carnival Festivities
13th February – Great Allegoric Parade
16th February - Fun Parade

The Carnival, or Mardi Gras, celebrations in Madeira take the form of a great parade of floats the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday and remain an essentially folk festival. Groups with thousands of participants flood the main streets of Funchal with music and contagious enjoyment.

This is a week of healthy madness that invades the hotels, bars and clubs, turning them into permanent parties. In an atmosphere of effusive revelry there are surprising examples of creativity and imagination and there is no shortage of daring caricatures in the Cortejo Trapalhão costume parade on Shrove Tuesday.

Madeira Island Open (PGA European Tour) – Porto Santo
March (days to be confirmed)

Madeira Flower Festival
17th April - The Wall of Hope Ceremony
18th April - Great Allegoric Parade

Every April, Madeira’s flower festival fills the main streets of Funchal. It is a breathtaking festival with a street parade and floats, through the streets of Funchal, exhibiting and perfuming the air with a multiplicity of floral species of the island.

The day before the parade, thousands of children gather in Praça do Município to lay a flower to build the so-called “Wall of Hope”.

There are also other activities in Funchal at the same time, like making carpets of flowers in the streets, performances by folklore groups, flower shows, classical music concerts and variety shows.
 

Atlantic Festival
5th, 12th, 19th and 26th June – Fireworks Contest
The Festival of the Atlantic is an important event that combines entertainment and culture. It has three components: the Madeira Music Festival, the International Fireworks Competition and performances by philharmonic bands in the city centre.

During this festival classical music performances are held at important sites in the region, such as Teatro Municipal Balthazar Dias, Casa das Mudas and several churches.

It has been further enhanced by the recent introduction of the International Fireworks Competition in which contestants organise firework displays to accompany the music on Saturdays.
 

XXIII Classic Car Rally (FIVA World rally)
June (days to be confirmed)

The Madeira Classic Car Club this year, and for the 23rd time running, is organising the Tour of Madeira Classic Rally, which will take place between in June (Dates to be confirmed).

The Tour of Madeira in Classic Cars is an event that is limited to Classic and Vintage Cars, enrolled in the “FIA Historic Regularity Rallies" and included in the FIVA (International Federation of Vintage Vehicles) calendar, Category A, in which participation is limited to the standards of this Federation and simultaneously to those of the International Automotive Federation (FIA) and must be in original working order.

This event takes place over four days and covers around 400 km through beautiful and often winding Madeiran roads, competing in a way that allows competitors to experience the breathtaking landscapes of this beautiful island.
 

Madeira Wine Rally (European Rally Championship)
5th, 6th and 7th August
The 2010 Madeira Wine Rally, the largest automobile event in the Region will be held from 5th to 7th August. Famous names from the world of motor racing and their cars will come to this major event which will bring together around 90 competitors.

Madeira Wine Festival
2nd to 5th September – Shows and Exhibitions in Funchal
4th September - Live Harvest in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos.

Recalling the social and economic importance of Madeira wine, the Madeira Wine Festival is held in September during the grape harvest, going back to the population’s old customs since the island was first settled.

In Câmara de Lobos (7kms outside funchal) the festival begins with the live grape harvest. The picking of the grapes, the pickers’ parade, treading the grapes and the whole ritual of a typical Madeira folk celebration are enjoyed by all. In the centre of Funchal there are light, sound and folk shows connected to traditional wine-making.

Columbus Festival - Porto Santo Island
16th to 18th September

Vila Baleira devotes three days to the mariner Christopher Columbus, who lived several years of his life in Porto Santo. Columbus’s first contact with Madeira was in 1478, when Funchal was a centre for the sugar trade. However, his closest ties to the archipelago are the result of his marriage to Filipa Moniz, daughter of the first donee of Porto Santo.

Columbus lived in the archipelago in the last quarter of the 15th century and his first child, Diogo, was born in Porto Santo. This festival harks back to the discoverer’s life in the Madeira Archipelago, his voyages to the Americas and the height of the Ages of Discoveries.

The event includes a number of initiatives alluding to life on the island at the time, with lots of music, street shows and exhibitions. The high point of this event is the re-enactment of the arrival of Columbus and his party at the city’s quay.

End of the Year Madeira Festivities
26th November to 6th January, 2011 - Christmas Lights, Decorations and Exhibitions
31st December – New Year’s Eve Firework Display