Campo Maior revives paper flower festival
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People in Campo Maior, Portugal, celebrated the Festas do Povo (People’s Festivals) from August 8 to 16, 2026, after an eleven-year pause.
The festival, dating back to 1893, involves decorating streets with intricate paper flowers created by community members. Residents began crafting the flowers months in advance, with some streets producing nearly three thousand blooms, over a thousand of which were poppies, and children participating alongside adults.
The festival isn’t held on a fixed schedule but occurs when the community expresses a desire to celebrate. Though preparations for a 2020 festival were underway, the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation. In 2021, UNESCO recognized the Festas do Povo as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Each street has a coordinator who organizes the decoration process, and the entire village participates in the overnight “enramação”, the process of covering the streets with flower-covered frameworks.
This year, the festival also honored Rui Nabeiro, a local businessman born in Campo Maior, by opening his childhood home to the public and dedicating street decorations to his memory and legacy. The event reflects values of community, cooperation, and dedication.
