Milhões de Festa

Milhões is an adventurous festival.

Situated on the banks and surrounding area of a river in the North West Portuguese town of Barcelos, near Porto, the cosy three-day event makes great use of the town’s serene surroundings. By day, attendees can either be found watching hardcore bands overlooking the glistening water, or lounging by the pool stage, a bundle of Disney blue swimming pools with a soundtrack that alternates from homegrown upstarts to the fieriest sounds coming from Portugal’s dance music-minded capital.

After the sun sets is arguably when the festival really grows into its own. Underground acts are launched from the toilet circuit to a big stage, with the novel approach to programming – where no performances overlap as a result of the set times being split between two stages – giving each performer a proper soundcheck and proper attention, inviting attendees to embrace, or at least give a chance, to artists they may have otherwise overlooked. This attention to detail stems from the event’s organisers: a crew of young music obsessives whose adventurous booking is reflected in the open minded nature of the attendees, with the event drawing an impressively diverse crowd despite catering to relatively niche tastes.

  • © Renato Santos

  • © Renato Santos

The nighttime programme mixed sounds from the periphery with old favourites. Friday’s line-up saw Subpop signed soul-rap duo THEESatisfaction charm the crowd with their melange of soul, flickers of psychedelia and jazz-influenced hip-hop backed with punch-lines and punchier choreography, followed by the Thai folk-funk brought by the Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band. Golden Teacher brought a similarly infectious engery, with their heady fusion of acid house, dub, post-punk and theatrical onstage antics, before Perc closed the night with what was absolutely the toughest set of the festival.

Grumbling Fur were an unexpected highlight of Saturday, with their improvised, multi-instrumental wormhole of sound teasing in catchy EBM-style hooks. Saturday’s highlight was undoubtedly komische pioneer Michael Rother, who played a selection of Neu and Harmonia classics. The recent passing of Deiter Moebuis, to whom Rother dedicated the performance to, amplified the set’s performance, where lush, chugging melodies unfurled effortlessly.

  • © Renato Santos

  • © Renato Santos

The Bug closed Sunday with sonic warfare that set off a symphony of car horns and burglar alarms in the surrounding area. With Manga and Flowdan visibly impressed amongst Martin’s unleashing of brutal bass, the open minded crowd were soon hooked on the chest-rattling onslaught of Bug productions. The notoriously hard-to-please Kevin Martin concluded in his Facebook report – a gushing addition to his soundman destroying ‘war reports’ – that Milhões was “organized professionally, perfectly and most importantly lovingly”, which is about as high as praise gets. It’s also justly reflective of the passion input from everyone involved in this little Portuguese gem.