tues 11 aug- 1

  The island of Faial has a population of about 18,000, and 15,000
live in Horta, the only town on the island. We happened to arrive at the
beginning of the Sea Festival, a week long celebration along the Horta
waterfront, and such a celebration I have never before been part of. The
entire waterfront is festooned with Christmas like lights, with many

booths and concession tents, several large tents with open air
restaurants in them, and three stages for music, singing and dancing.
Starting in the afternoon people start arriving and the music starts. I
love the music. Sometimes it comes from two, or even all three stages,
and it is a wide variety of music, local folk and traditional, brass
band music, organ jazz, singing groups. . .  Then I walk down the
breakwater to the waterfront street where everything is happening, and
there are thousands of people, lots of little children, all crowded in,
many waiting to get into the open air eating places. On a stage may be a

grip of children dancing a local jig, another stage a man is planing a
stringed instrument and another is a group of about six musicians with
various strings, and accordion. A large group of people are standing in
front of the stage. They start playing, and everybody standing there
start dancing, in a circle, hands up, hands on hips, change partners,
etc.
It was wonderful. We asked where all these people come from. We
don't see ships arriving disgorging thousands of people. Two people gave us the same answer. Some people come from Portugal for the festival, some from the US, some from other islands. But on man said that he recognised 90% of the people there, and the woman said she knew 80% of the people
there. Of the 18,000 people on Faial, 10,000 of them must
come to the waterfront for the festival. I was very impressed. I have
never seen such a celebration. The only thing I can compare it to is
being dropped down in the middle of the NC State Fair. But this is just
one little island, and it lasts all week. Sunday was the last day.
Yesterday, Monday, it was as if somebody pulled the plug on Horta. The
only thing moving in town was some people taking down tents and cleaning up.
Break - more to follow.