Over three months, between June 1 and September 1, downtown Coimbra will host concerts, workshops for children, talks, DJ sets, film screenings, themed tours and artistic residencies, in an initiative that combines the "Verão a 2 Tempos" [Summer in 2 Times] from the Coimbra City Council and the "Epicentro" festival from Blue House, as announced today at a press conference.

A Garota will work together with the Coro das Mulheres da Fábrica [Women's Factory Choir], Bruno Pernadas and Margarida Campelo with the 10th and 11th grade students of the jazz course at the Conservatory, and João Firmino and Joana Espadinha with the final year students of the same course, said João Silva, coordinator of Blue House.

Although music is highlighted in the programme, there will also be connections to other languages, such as theatre, dance and design.

While these artistic residencies will promote connections between artists from the city and from outside, there are also training perspectives, such as the case of jazz students, or even to record creative processes, such as the recording of guitarist Pedro Branco's album playing Marco Paulo, or the recording of the Lírio-do-Vale album, a project led by saxophonist João Mortágua.

Most of the artistic residencies will be presented in the "Verão a 2 Tempos" cycle, which will have concerts at 7 pm and 10 pm, on Fridays and Saturdays.

The event will also feature a stage called "Epicentro", which will be located in Praça do Comércio, ensuring concerts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If on Tuesdays the stage will be mainly for artists from the Centro region, in partnership with the Bons Sons festival in Tomar, and with the publisher Omnichord in Leiria, among others, on Thursdays the visibility will be given to the community of foreign artists living in Coimbra.

The workshops for children, which will take place over eleven weeks, will be taught by artists and they will also have a moment of public presentation, on Fridays, said Catarina Silva, from the association Há Baixa, which is also involved in the organisation of the initiative.

Empty shops in downtown Coimbra will be occupied for talks, exhibitions or concerts, in a programme that spreads throughout the public space of the city's historic centre, such as Praça do Comércio, Largo do Romal, Largo do Poço or Largo da Freiria, also taking advantage of spaces from cultural entities that are joining the initiative, such as the Centro de Artes Visuais [Visual Arts Centre], A Fábrica, Teatro da Cerca de São Bernardo [Cerca de São Bernardo Theatre] and Salão Brazil.

"We did this exercise of thinking about what it would be like if downtown Coimbra was occupied by creative agents for a long period. During this long period, we will have nationally renowned artists working in downtown Coimbra, creating artistic objects with other entities from here", stressed the head of the Culture Division of the Coimbra City Council, Rafael Nascimento, during the press conference.

According to the official, the programme design was made with "greater involvement of the city's cultural entities", involving them in the final proposal, in a logic of programming at various scales, "original and that worked on audience mediation".

The mayor of Coimbra, José Manuel Silva, highlighted the importance of working on the cultural programme "in a democratic and participatory way", allowing an eclectic proposal, which will have a budget of around 85 thousand euros.

The programme, which is not yet closed, can be consulted at https://v2t-epicentro.com.

The initiative has the participation of Há Baixa, Quebra Costas, Agência para a Promoção da Baixa [Downtown Promotion Agency], Escola da Noite [Night School], Jazz ao Centro Clube [Jazz to the Centre Club] and União de Freguesias de Coimbra [Coimbra Parishes Union], in addition to the Coimbra City Council and Blue House.

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