About the Event

Palheta Bendita is a world music festival co-organized by the cultural association “Associação Cultural Tirsense” (ACT) and the Municipality of Santo Tirso. It originated as a result of the teaching of various instruments, especially hurdy-gurdy and bagpipe, provided at the traditional music school of “Ponte Velha”, which operates within this community.

The festival started in a very limited way in 2005 and has grown steadily over its editions, becoming a reference in Portugal and Galicia in the context of the circuit of instrument makers exhibitions.

As usual, in addition to the aforementioned fair of instrument makers, there will also be lectures, workshops, and concerts dedicated to contemporary folk music expressions from various continents.

The "Associação Cultural Tirsense"

What is ACT?

The “Associação Cultural Tirsense” (ACT) is a non-profit entity founded in Santo Tirso in August 2001. Its activities have included a film club, the amateur theater group 'A Corte da Mula,' organizing the Santo Tirso Comic Book Meeting, the children's choir 'Os Activistas,' and publishing 10 numbers of the magazine 'ACTO.' However, it stands out for its actions related to popular music.

Located at “Moinho de Baixo”, owned by the association “Associação Amigos do Sanguinhedo”, ACT's headquarters houses the traditional music school of “Ponte Velha”, established in 2003. The school offers weekly classes in bagpipe, hurdy-gurdy, and percussion. Students benefit from workshops on musical performance and engage with older musicians, delving into their life stories, knowledge, and orally transmitted learning contexts.

What does ACT do?

ACT currently co-organizes the Palheta Bendita festival with the Municipality of Santo Tirso, now in its 18th edition in 2024. The festival has become a reference in popular music, serving as a meeting point for musicians from Portugal and Galicia. In addition to concerts, it hosts an instrument makers fair from both sides of the border, along with lectures and workshops dedicated to safeguarding the intangible heritage related to musical instruments, dances, and songs of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula.

Within ACT's premises, various groups conduct activities, such as the comic brass band “Pantomina” and the bands “Chulada da Ponte Velha”, “Gaiteiros da Ponte Velha”, “Sanfonas da Ponte Velha”, and the bagpipe school of “Ponte Velha”.

Aware of the potential of inter-associative synergies, ACT regularly collaborates with other collectives on musical projects. Examples include the publication of the songbook “Cancioneiro de Gaita-de-foles” in 2018 in partnership with the Portuguese Association for the Study and Promotion of Bagpipes, a leaflet on “Instrumentos musicais singelos: aerofones de palheta” in the same year in collaboration with “Pédexumbo” (Association for the Promotion of Music and Dance), the catalog for the exhibition “Instrumentos Populares do Noroeste Peninsular” in partnership with the association “Canto D'Aqui” for Braga Capital of Culture of the Atlantic Axis 2020, and the film “As Cores da Água”, premiered in 2021 in partnership with “Cardo Roxo”. Additionally, in 2021, ACT published the book “Os Zés Pereiras do Entre Douro e Minho”, funded by the DGA (Portuguese Directorate-General for the Arts).

Within this theme, ACT has two traveling exhibitions about “Zés Pereiras”: “Os Zés Pereiras do Entre Douro e Minho” and “A Charanga Os Cinco Hermanos: gaiteiros das margens do Minho”, created with the support of the “Agrupamento Europeu de Cooperação Territorial do Rio Minho “ and in collaboration with “Pédexumbo”, “Central Folque”, and the Municipality of Caminha.

Moreover, stepping outside the realm of traditional music, ACT organizes an annual concert series – X-ACT – focused on various musical genres.