Glastonbury and Coachella

Cruising past the Ponte 25 de Abril, which, when I squinted, could have been the Golden Gate Bridge I’d left back home, I wondered if my passport might burst into flames. I was going to a communist festival in Amora, Portugal, hardly the sort of festival I’d envisioned myself attending during my summer in Lisbon.

Though the view from the ferry took me back to American

soil, where the word “communism” still lands with a thud, for the people of

Portugal, Lisbon’s bright red bridge commemorates the Carnation Revolution that

toppled the fascist Estado Novo regime, under which members of the Portuguese

Communist Party (PCP) were persecuted. On April 25, 1974, a group of

left-leaning officers in the Portuguese army started a coup in the nation’s

capital that would become a mighty, nonviolent civil resistance. As the regime

fell, ending with it Portuguese colonialism, civilians gave soldiers red

carnations, many of which wound up in the barrels of their guns.

Two years later, an emboldened PCP threw the first Festa do

Avante! in Lisbon, naming it after the party’s official newspaper, Avante!, or

Forward! The festival has since grown, and moved, today drawing hundreds of

thousands to the suburbs of Lisbon every first weekend in September.

“Think of it like Glastonbury,” a friend who’d studied

abroad in England told me, pitching the festival for the following Saturday.

I’d never been to Glastonbury, but I couldn’t picture hammer-and-sickle flags

flying during a Mumford and Sons set.

“Really, it’s just a big party,” another added, sensing my

skepticism. Minutes later, they’d all break out into a spirited chorus of PCP

anthem “Avante, Camarada.”

Though a joke, the exchange captured Avante! perfectly.

From a distance, it looks like any other festival, only

larger. Ten stages shuffle through musical acts, theater and film screenings,

debates, and more. There are book tents, art and science exhibits, and play

areas with kid-friendly activities like puppet workshops and concerts for

babies. There’s enough food and drink to represent all the flavors of Portugal,

as well as those from across the globe. And there’s sports both for spectators,

like martial arts matches and roller hockey games, and participants, like

running and bike races and ballet, boxing, and zumba classes.

Dedicated festivalgoers come for all three days, bringing

caravans or pitching tents at the on-site campground, much like they do at

Glastonbury and Coachella.

Up close, however, Avante! announces its politics loudly.

Rather than typical concert merch, booths here sell “Free Lula” pins, in

defense of polarizing Brazilian political prisoner Luiz Inácio “Lula” de Silva,

and T-shirts emblazoned with Marxist icons. Festivalgoers of all ages walk

around with Che Guevara on their chests like kids in Nirvana tees at their

first rock concerts.