Portuguese Festival Coming To Wrexham This Weekend

A ‘colourful parade’ will arrive in Wrexham over the next few days, with the town’s first Portuguese Carnival taking place.

In the first of its kind for Wrexham, over the next week the town’s growing Portuguese community will play host to a series of events that aims to ‘share the richness’ of the culture with the local population.

There are an estimated 2,000 people in Wrexham of Portuguese descent, along with several businesses across the town centre. Including a Portuguese supermarket on Charles Street, three coffee shops (Morning Star, O Crème and Taste of Portugal; industrial cleaning company Sparkle and Shine and M&M, a Portuguese take-away.

The fun begins on Saturday 14th February where a Colourful Carnival will take place across the town centre. Beginning at 3pm at Queens Square, the celebrations will pass through Lambpit Street, Chester Street, High Street, Hope Street, Lord Street and finishing at Queen’s Square at around 4pm.

From 7pm a special masked ball will take place at All Saints Church in Poyser Street.

On Sunday 15th February – Tuesday 17th February there will be a series of games, music, food and entertainment for all the family at Bellevue Park. The celebrations will take place between 2pm and 4:30pm on each of the three days.

Speaking at the Town Centre Forum, one of the festival organisers, Jorge Vieira Szabo said: “We were planning a small demonstration of the carnival, bringing Wrexham to the map for the Worldwide Carnival.

“We will be having a carnival at the same time as all places that celebrate it. Planning something small to grow over the years, social media have exceeded expectations. We were really planning a small thing, now we are running to begin a higher level.

“We want people to know we are not a ghetto of nationality and we are integrated and open to all everything we will be doing is in the interest to the town, and all people wherever their nationality.”

Everyone is welcome to attend and take part in both the carnival and the series of celebrations at Bellevue Park. Those who do fancy taking part in the parade are welcome to wear a colourful mask, brightly coloured clothing or even fancy dress!

More information on how you can get involved can be found on the Portuguese Association Facebook page here. Alternatively you can pop into one of the local Portuguese businesses / contact [email protected].