Successful Lagoa Wine Show attracts 4,000 - 6,000 visitors

The management of the ‘Lagoa Wine Show’ is to apply for Lagoa to become the 'Wine Capital' in 2016, according to mayor Francisco Martins following the first show at the Arade Congress Centre in Parchal from April 2 to 4.

The Easter Friday holiday helped attendance with the number of visitors variously reported as ‘nearly 4,000’ to ‘over 6,000’ depending on which publication you refer to.

The three day show hosted 125 wine producers with 22 from the Algarve region, a good performance from the events team for the first such show in the Lagoa area.

The event included blind tastings, seminars from wine experts, food demonstrations and sell-out musical entertainment in the evenings.

Francisco Martins pointed out in his opening speech, that "wine is part of our identity, part of being Lagoan.”

According to the mayor, the Lagoa Wine Show is to continue, and he now will apply for Lagoa to be designated as 'Wine Capital' in 2016, although it was not made clear to whom he will apply and whether this is a regional or national capital.

The organisers from Lagoa council and the Algarve Wine Route were positive about the success of the show and said that 2,952 bottles were opened for the tasting of 492 different types of wine.

Now that the after show hype is over, Lagoa ratepayers will expect to see the financial income and expenditure before feeling any warm glow that the event is to become part of the Lagoa annual events calendar. Wariness still exists about the loss-making Fatacil show with accumulated losses of around €700,000 and if the Wine Show is deeply in the red, questions should be asked as to how much effort would be needed to make it profitable.

A figure for the exact number of tickets sold at the Lagoa Wine Show would be a good start.

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