The largest festival in Porto is a midsummer festival of Porto’s patron saint São João or Saint John. It’s a huge street festival, one of the liveliest in Europe.
São João Festival is held on July 24, although it really get’s started the evening before, and lasts until dawn the next day.
Expect noise, frivolity, sardines grilling in the squares (Sardinha Assada), music, odd customs, flame-propelled balloons floating in the night sky, and boats plying the Douro to get in position for the midnight fireworks.
Speaking of odd customs, you might expect to see folks getting bopped on the head with flowering garlic, according to Wikipedia.
People carry a whole plant of flowering garlic with them (or a little plastic hammer), which they use to bang their neighbors over the head for good luck. According to one Portuguese Grandmother, the tradition is that St. John was a scalliwag in his youth and the people hit him on the head with the garlic saying “return to the right path”.
Related: Porto Climate and Weather
