New 18,000-capacity festival launching in Portugal

A new 18,000-capacity, multi-day festival is launching in Braga, the far north of Portugal, this winter.

The Authentica festival will take place between 10 and 11 December at indoor arena, Altice Forum Braga, with headliners Kodaline and Rag’n’Bone Man.

The festival will feature four stages and will open between 4:30 pm and 3 am each day.

“This festival is a dream of about two years of enormous planning and dedication of a hard-working team,” says the general director of Malpevent, Marco Poland, promoter of Authentica.

“Even with enormous challenges over the last few years, we heard the public that yearned for a great winter festival, to bring families and young people together again around excellent music.”

“The objective of Authentica is to place Braga on the map of the best and biggest music festivals in the world,” Poland concludes.

Malpevent believes that Authentica will be the only big festival to take place in 2021 in Portugal.

“The objective is to place Braga on the map of the best and biggest music festivals in the world”

Major Portuguese festivals including Nos Alive, NOS Primavera Sound Porto, Paredes de Coura, Super Bock Super Rock, EDP Vilar de Mouros were called off this year due to ongoing restrictions.

Under the current restrictions, cultural events can go ahead with up to 75% of a venue’s capacity, up from 50%.

The rules have been in effect since 20 August when the government decided to loosen restrictions two weeks earlier than planned, as its vaccination campaign moved ‘faster than anticipated’.

The government says the restrictions on cultural events will be lifted when 85% of the population is fully vaccinated.

As of yesterday (7 September), over 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Authentica stakeholders say they have no doubt the festival will go ahead in December.

Tickets are already on sale at prices ranging from €45 euros for a day pass to €150 for a general VIP pass.

James Bay, De La Soul, Dino D’Santiago, Zara Larsson and Nothing But Thieves are among the other acts on the poster. See the full line-up below.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.