Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival 2023 creates the conditions for the public to get to know the city's iconic buildings. 

Açoteia (a designation of Islamic origin) was a work space, an extension of the hard work in the field that ended with the drying of fruit and subsequent storage for consumption or sale. It was not at all a space dedicated to leisure as we consider it today. With time and the profound transformation of ways of life, these spaces were forgotten. New ways of socializing, of living in community, but above all, the concern with the present of our planet, force us to look at the terraces as places for a sustainable use, contributing to the reduction of our ecological footprint.

Many cities in Europe have been doing this for some time and Faro intends to follow this new way of using our rooftops, to give them a mark of cultural, community and sustainable enjoyment and, therefore, together with several European cities, namely Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Antwerp, Nicosia, Gothemburg, Belfast and Chemnitz, we formed the "European Creative Rooftop Network" (ECRN). 

One of the main goals of ECRN is to lead governments, municipalities, NGOs and populations in general to reflect, think and put into practice new creative uses of rooftops and how their transformation can contribute to a more sustainable and balanced world. 

The first edition of Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival took place in 2019, being unprecedented in its ambition to draw attention to those spaces on our rooftops that (with exceptions) only served to store materials, extend the laundry or even get forgotten. 

With Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival we wanted to highlight our identity; tell those who live in the municipality of Faro and in the region that this was a good way to draw attention to a wide range of unused spaces in the city and show their potential; show those who visited us that this was a good way to show the city from another point of view. 

Açoteia - Faro Rooftop Festival allows you to visit the top of buildings that are normally not visitable and look at the city and the Ria Formosa from another perspective. Besides the more global objectives - namely environmental sustainability and creativity - this is also a cultural event that aims to bring the community and the arts together. For its implementation, the festival relies on the collaboration of local associations, public institutions, public and private companies and individuals, who, with their enthusiasm and generosity, contribute to making this festival a reality.

In 2019 we started with about 20 rooftops and, this year the festival opens to the public about 35 spaces, allowing to know, to see and to appreciate what is offered to our daily look but that we can't always see and, what becomes beautiful, will certainly be loved and defended by all.