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