Press Releases

The originality starts right at the entrance to Vodafone Paredes de Coura which will be composed of environmentally friendly, dynamic architectural structures using recycled and reused wood, creating a striking dialogue with the festival’s natural surroundings. The same environmental principle is reflected in the main stage whose structure will include an art installation: lycra tubes with interior lighting will lend a new rhythm to the stage, contributing to an even more powerful visual spectacle.

Another of the new features, Vodafone Trashart, is intended to motivate the Vodafone Paredes de Coura audience to recycle waste into art. To encourage the audience to put recyclable waste in the correct bins, the young artist Mauro Carmelino will transform them into art installations. All the bins will have a QR code linking to the festival app, where information about the artist will be available.

To make sure that Vodafone Paredes de Coura campers are never out of touch, Vodafone will be providing a facility for charging their mobile phones. At the Recharge Centre, a covered structure located near the campsite, visitors will have some 200 electrical outlets available for their use.

In addition to all these initiatives Vodafone will be providing hammocks, lifebuoys, pedalos and loungers on the river Taboão. There will also be two 17-seater Vodafone Shuttles that will provide a free shuttle service between the campsite and the town for festival wristband wearers.

Festival goers will also be offered an iOS and Android app, integrated with Facebook and Instagram (giving access to a page with uploaded photos with specific hashtags and photo sharing with custom filters). As well as enabling users to buy festival passes or daily tickets at a 20% discount, view the main news and billing of the Vodafone Paredes de Coura Festival filtered by date, venue and artist, the app also enables them to create a personalised concert schedule, share it with friends and access useful information and reviews of the various concerts. A GPS system will provide the exact location of the Vodafone Shuttles.

Vodafone FM is the festival’s official radio station and during the event all its programming will focus on Vodafone Paredes de Coura. The festival enclosure will have a studio transmitting live broadcasts of concerts, interviews and recordings of exclusive content featuring festival performers. From 9:00 pm on Monday 13 August there will be concerts on the Vodafone FM stage – the festival’s second stage – which will also be the venue for the festival’s after-hours concerts.

To design one of the official, exclusive and limited edition festival T-shirts, Vodafone has invited Pedro Lourenço, the illustrator who also designed the clothing worn by Vodafone promoters in the enclosure and other merchandising materials.

The Paredes de Coura Festival has been showcasing music for over twenty years and will grow further in 2013 with Vodafone’s sponsorship, in the certainty that this year’s event will be marked by the creativity, originality and quality of the festival initiatives and a major effort to involve festival goers in the experiences on offer.