ARREBITA PORTUGAL Food Fest

As we all well remember, in March 2020, all outdoor/public wise events were cancelled all over the world. Music festivals, local feasts, even marriages. Live stream reinvented itself, as did all those events through live streaming. But when June arrived, after 3 months in almost full closure, we all just wanted more.

At the time, I was working for a communications and events agency specialised in gastronomy. We thought we needed to come up with something. Something big, something national, something to cheer up the people, something to bring us all back to the streets. Wee all needed love and live smiles. And can you think of a better way of doing it then through food?

And so ARREBITA PORTUGAL - LOCAL GASTRONOMY FEST was born. A festival 100% designed for the COVID context and in agreement with the national and European health standards at the time. The whole concept was to bring reputed chefs, fine dining chefs, to cook street food with local products in small towns and villages all over the country. And with this, to stimulate local commerce and economy as well as to encourage national tourism.

First step was to create a logo that would be 'national' but also 'territorial', to engage local communities. The result is a logo where one can simply enter the new town or village name to brand it 'locally', together with small elements for the key visual that identify with the region, such as water or mountain. Besides, it's all about food, isn't it? So food must be on the logo 😜. Seafood, fish, vegetables, fruits, all the good things you can eat in Portugal. Hashtags used had also to encourage all that is local, so we came up with #ArrebitaaTuaCidade (#CheerupYourTown) and #ArrebitaaTuaRegião (CheerupYourRegion).

In 2020 we organised the event in Portimão and we did a special Bio edition for Idanha-a-Nova, the first official Portuguese Bio Region, where the motto was "Local Sustainable Gastronomy". The event was awarded the Big Prize of the Portuguese Gastronomy Academy that same year. In 2021 there was more...

Please feel invited to check ARREBITA PORTUGAL on Facebook and Instagram to have a better idea of what really happened 😎.