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WELCOME MESSAGES
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Seia, the heart of the highest
mountainous chain of Continental Portugal— the Serra da Estrela.
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SEIA and its municipality
integrate one of the most beautiful protected areas of the country, that stands
out for its diversity and scenic beauty, as an area of great ecological sensitivity
and biogenetic heritage, unique in Portugal. The beauty of the landscape, the purity
of water and of the air, the active and strong cultural traditions, allied to the
great dynamism of their people, make the municipality of Seia increasingly attractive
and with high patterns of quality of life.
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In the municipality are varied attraction factors, featuring historical and
architectural monuments and landscapes of rare beauty, where the mountain, the
water, the river beaches and the mountain villages play an important role, but
also local products such as: the Serra da Estrela Curd Cheese, the Bread, the
Corn Bread, Loriga's Dark Cinnamon Cake, the Wine, Smoked Sausages and not
forgetting the Kid Goat Stew along with cultural facilities (CISE-interpretation
centre of Serra da Estrela, Toy's Museum, Natural Museum of Electricity, Bread
Museum...).
It is therefore in the light of these idyllic sceneries that we invite you to enjoy
this vast heritage. We hope that this Festival could be a gathering of enriching
experiences, a bonding agent of conviviality between different languages and cultures,
and also a competition which is expected to be profitable and healthy.
A word fits here of esteem and gratefulness to the Organization for the pledge and
dedication, but also for the promotion that ensures to this mountain territory a great
notoriety towards the municipality and to the region.
The Mayor
Carlos Filipe Camelo M. de Figueiredo
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Dear friends, it is with great pleasure and joy that we receive all
the participants in the 1st edition of the International Song Festival
of Serra da Estrela.
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Finally we arrived at
the moment in which we concrete an old dream, to see in Portugal an international
song Festival - in a model that has made its way in many European countries
(and not only in Europe), but did not exist in our country yet. A competitive
Festival, directed for children and young people, which during four days will
bring a new movement and color to Seia streets and to other places in Serra da
Estrela. And with a strong international participation.
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Approaching this moment of truth - four days that follow intense months
of preparation - we want to mark and recognize the role and the proactive
action of an entity without which it would not be possible to materialize
this event: the Municipality of Seia.
We also want to thank the support and assistance we have received from
various organizations and companies who gave us the honor of being associated
with this Festival.
In this first edition of FICSE, we received more than fifty entries.
Curiously, approximately half of the competitors are Portuguese, the other
half are foreigners coming from 12 countries, from neighboring Spain to far
Kazakhstan.
The Festival that is now beginning is not limited to musical performances
(though that is its main vector). It also includes an extensive social program,
providing to the many dozens of people who visit Seia in this last week of
August a series of visits and excursions to places of tourist and cultural
interest in the region of Serra da Estrela - a program chosen especially in
the perspective of children and youth, but that will surely interest the adults
who are accompanying them.
This is the first edition of a festival we want to accomplish every year,
always in the last week of August. To the singers who during four days will
perform in the stage of Municipal House of Culture, to the relatives and music
and vocal teachers who accompanying them, our thank for your presence in this
event. Enjoy your staying and the healthy competition that these four days will
provide. And those who are "discovering" Seia and Serra da Estrela for the first
time... you will find plenty of reasons to come back...
Welcome to International Song Festival of Serra da Estrela!
Nuno Figueira
Director of the Festival
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