Just focusing on the past two, or three years I’ve seen a change here in Faro. Especially regarding culture. The electronic scene. Two years ago you had to wait for a techno or house party for like three months. Nowadays, you have one every weekend. That’s great. I made this experience by myself. In the past year, I started working in the electronic scene here in Faro. I sell tickets and promote events. I could see that more and more people become interested in this field.

People are missing. Especially on Fridays. First of all, I think the main thing is that just 80% of the people who are in Faro go out to where the people are and the other 20% go to parties because they like the music. I’m not just talking about the electronic scene. That’s the first problem. To attract people to for example go into a club, you have to bring someone recognizable. Moreover, I think a lot depends on communication as well.

That’s a great question. Honestly. I mean, for example, communication is like my job. I share the happening of events on Social Media, but for me, it doesn’t seem right to share things every week. I feel like what’s efficient is talking to people about it. There’s gonna be this party, for which I sold 40 tickets last weekend. That’s a lot of tickets. But I didn’t sell them via my Instagram story, but when I talked to the people directly.

Another problem is that the majority of places close at 4:00 am. That’s way too early. That’s the time, everyone just wants to keep going. I assume that if this changes and the places stay open until maybe 6:00 am, the dynamic of the nightlife is gonna change completely. Another problem is that in some places, which I generally like a lot, the drinks are very expensive. The city also has to face other obstacles. Downtown is surrounded by a bunch of houses. That makes it difficult to enable places to be open for example until 6:00 am. People complain about the noises.

On the other hand, I think that a lot of organizers have nailed the aesthetic of their communication. The message can be conveyed, but it’s difficult to find the balance between promoting an event on Social Media regularly and posting too much. If it’s too much, people receive the promotion as spam and won’t pay attention.

I think that it would move things forward if we created a bridge between the university and clubs here in Faro. Maybe just to let people know that there is an electronic scene. I feel like a lot of people are still not aware of that.

That would be a good idea. Just put everyone in one place working together, but I don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen. Most places belong to the same people. There are only a few independent places. This is a problem in my opinion because everyone is always in competition with each other.

I mean a lot more than just the culture that has changed during the last few years. For example, a lot of secondhand stores have opened. Of course, there are more cultural events and people are more included. Even the municipality offers more support in my opinion.

Of course, it does. I mean, Portugal, in general, is like a touristic country and if you bring people from different cultural contexts it makes a difference. You have a lot of people coming from outside and creating concepts and creating associations.

Portugal isn’t built for Portuguese people at all. For example, there is a lack of reasonably priced homes for certain segments of society.
At the same time, Portugal can’t exist without tourism. That’s a fact.
And there is also this difference between summer and winter. In summer, there is a lot of everything.

I am still trying to make connections and get to know the people who already know how to organize events here in Faro. Especially regarding the nightlife. But once I am established and can realize what I am thinking of, I am gonna do it. But this is gonna take a while, I guess.

Definitely. I spoke about this with my friends. For example, I sold a lot of tickets for this event here in Faro. I don’t think that I would have had the same success in Lisbon. I know pretty much everyone here, who goes out. I know which people frequent which party. I know what kind of electronic genre they like to listen to. That’s how I can be somehow successful.

On the other hand, in the long term, it is ten times better in Lisbon, Porto, or somewhere else outside of Portugal. Better, because you can do more. Outside, you can invite different people with different mindsets. I feel like here there are still a lot of people that have a mindset that is not “up to date“. I can see it every day. I maybe dress a little differently or listen to electronic music at 3:00 am and people are looking at me differently.

I’ve always liked fashion and clothing. But here, for example, we don’t have a fashion or design course. I had the feeling that communication studies were a subject that included a lot of topics that I am interested in. I realized that I can gain a lot from these studies. I realized that everything communicates: The way you dress, the movies you watch, everything.

I consider myself someone creative and the way I communicate will always have this aspect. I think to communicate well, someone doesn’t have to be crazy, but in one way creative. I feel like it always has to be simple and direct. These two characteristics are important otherwise you’re not communicating right. Be it through graphic design, clothes, or just social media.