Exhibitions, conferences, cinema and concerts are the highlights of the program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April that the Câmara de Beja is promoting, from today until the end of this year, in various locations in the municipality.
In a statement, the municipality of Alentejo revealed that the program for the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of April 25 kicks off at 7pm today with the inauguration, at the UNESCO Centre, of the exhibition “1994 Memories of April 25 in Beja – 20th Anniversary Poster Competition”.
Over the course of the year, 11 more exhibitions will be presented, three of which will open in April.
These are the exhibitions entitled “A little red light – Carnation, the flower of freedom”, which brings together posters from the Ephemera collection, from José Pacheco Pereira’s archive, “April 74/75 – One year of Diário do Alentejo, in the heat of the Revolution”, promoted by the municipality and the newspaper Diário do Alentejo, and “Beja in the April Revolution”, curated by historian Constantino Piçarra.
The debate is also part of the commemorative program of the revolution, with the cycle of conferences “Memories of April: the importance of memory in the defense of democracy”, taking place between March and October.
Five conferences will cover topics such as “music and poetry in the resistance, the assault on the Beja barracks, freedom – or lack of it – in the press and the role of women before and after April 25, among others,” the municipality announced.
A conference on the 50th anniversary of democracy is also planned for April, which will take place “as part of the inauguration of the street exhibitions”, the note reads.
Music is another highlight of the celebrations, with 16 shows planned throughout the year.
Most of them, according to the municipality, are dedicated to intervention music, but there will also be cante, philharmonic bands, disco music, traditional dance, traditional Alentejo music and contemporary reinterpretations of the songs of the revolution.
The Câmara de Beja has indicated that concerts are also planned, in Praça da República, on April 24 and 25, and a final show on December 21.
In the area of cinema, the cycle “25 de Abril, 50 anos em filmes” will be promoted, which will include the screening, among others, of the films “Outro País”, by Sérgio Tréfaut, in April, and “Salgueiro Maia, O Implicado”, by Sérgio Graciano, in December.
Plays, family sports activities and traditional games in rural parishes are other aspects of the program prepared by the municipality, as is the promotion of civic and youth participation in local government, with the “Municipal Assembly Goes to Schools” initiative and the first Youth Municipal Assembly.
For its part, the Beja Municipal Assembly will meet in solemn session on April 25, in the city’s public garden, and will hold an extraordinary session on December 12, “alluding to the date in 1976 when the first municipal assemblies were held, the only municipal body created after the revolution”.
