The Praia da Vitória Festivities are covered of great importance as cultural and economical event for the Terceira Island and for the Azores.

The conviction is of the vice president of the Government who presided, today, to the opening ceremony of the IX Market of Gastronomy of the Atlantic, included in the program of the Praia da Vitória Festivities 2008.

Like the remaining festivities that happen in the summer season in the Azores, these initiatives allow the “qualification of the tourist offer and animation” in the Region, it added Sérgio Ávila.

For the vice president of the Government, besides stimulating the circulation of the inhabitants and visitors between the islands, the festivities reinforce the “capacity of attractiveness and knowledge of each island’s reality”, representing equally an opportunity for demonstrating the “cultural wealth of each island” and the “enterprising and creative capacity of developing the main added values that stems from the Azorean archipelagic nature”.

Ten restaurants, of which eight from the Mainland, a regional one and one of Cape Verde, three delicatessen shops and five representations of Azorean and continental sweets shop compose the Gastronomic Market.

Till 10th August, the Praia da Vitória Festivities, this year under the motto of the “Seven Wonders of Portugal”, present a wide recreational program that includes the concerts of Mafalda Veiga, Xutos & Pontapés, Pedro Khima, Just Girls and Ana Popovic, as well as the Blues International Festival “Praia Blues”, the XXIV Folklore International Festival and the Regional Handicraft Market, besides parades, sport and street animation.