The Aveiro district event, organized by the local City Council, offers a commemorative edition that is “broader, more participatory, and deeply connected to the territory and its time,” free to the public across all program initiatives.
Domingos Silva, Mayor of Ovar, stated that after ten years and eleven editions, the festival is “fully consolidated.” He added, “While it is true that the Ovar Literary Festival is today an effective celebration of the municipality, transforming into a living library over five days, it also aims to continue reinventing itself, assured of its cultural, social, and economic value on this dynamic and eternal path of bringing literature closer to readers.”
The mayor argues that the event’s future lies in “continuing to grow and reinvent new ways to promote reading and share distinctive and identity-defining cultural moments.”
Distributed across locations such as Ovar Urban Park, the Art Center, the School of Arts and Crafts, the Júlio Dinis Museum, and the Buçaquinho Environmental Park, the 2025 edition of the Ovar Literary Festival proposes, for its first day, a sound installation by Tiago Schwäbl, a roundtable on the relationship between artistic creation and literary work, a theatrical performance by the Contacto company, a conversation between musicians Capicua and Luís Portugal, and a concert by Carlos Alberto Moniz.
Thursday’s agenda includes the presentation of Daniel Pinto-Rodrigues’ book “O corregedor interior,” a conference on literature as a liberation process, and the concert “Canções para beber com Pessoa” by Ana Deus and Luca Argel.
The following day features a performance by Trigo Limpo Teatro ACERT, a reading and writing workshop by Paulo Freixinho, presentations of the books “Um pouco mais de sol” by Abel Mota and “Phosphoros (100 amorfos)” by António Carlos Santos, a conference on the festival’s relationship with the territory, and another on the culture’s potential power. The day concludes with the concert “Anónimos de Abril” with Joana Alegre, Rogério Charraz, and José Fialho Gouveia.
Saturday includes the award ceremony for the Júlio Dinis Literary and Illustration Contest, illustration workshops by Nuno Alexandre Vieira and aRita, and book presentations, including “Truz Truz, abre a porta, avestruz” by Vera Morgado, “Patrulha Raposa — Vigilantes da floresta” by Diana de Oliveira, “Agora sou capaz” by Ricardo Santos and Joana Nogueira, and “Cartografia” by Minês Castanheira and Raquel Patriarca.
The same day also features theater by Trigo Limpo, a storytelling session by Luís Correia Carmelo, and roundtable discussions on vanity and envy, friendship and money, and determination in writing. The evening is reserved for a “Poesia a meias” session and the show “Para atravessar contigo o deserto do mundo” with Lúcia Moniz and Pedro Lamares.
The festival closes on Sunday with various activities. In addition to professional theater and student cinema, there are storytelling sessions by Cândida Jardim and Paula Margato, illustration workshops by Matilde Horta and Rita Correia, and book presentations of titles such as “O descabido caso dos livros desaparecidos” by Carlos Nuno Granja, “A dança dos pássaros invisíveis” by Edgar Pedro, “O rufo do tambor que levamos no peito” by Rui Guedes, and the “Colégio do Templo” collection by Nuno Bernardo.
Sunday’s roundtables will feature authors Vanessa Martins, Alice Caetano, Joana Leitão Cristina Carvalho, José Manuel Castanheira, Madalena Sá Fernandes, Manuel Frias Martins, and Rui Couceiro.
