by Ken Walker
June 9-10: Portugal Day 2007 in the Ironbound!
May 16, 2007 in Uncategorized by Ken Walker
Ah, summer in the Ironbound. Backyard barbecues, Brahmas beer, and half-a-million revelers filling through Ferry Street over the course of a weekend.
Portugal Day is coming up and, as I can see from our traffic stats, we’re not the only ones who are excited. 
The festival will take place Saturday and Sunday, June 9th and 10th. The whole of Ferry Street is typically packed from a block east of Penn Station all the way to Fillmore Street (about a mile). There will be floats, traditional dancing, pop music, and lots and lots of food.
Check out “previous festival coverage”:http://dailynewarker.com/category/festival/.
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The Feast from hell make’s its return. This is nothing but drunken festival and a nightmare for the homeowners who live off of Ferry Street. End this Now.
It’s too bad I’ll miss this. A always like the mayhem on Ferry Street, even though I can see how a festival like this could potentially become annnoying for Ferry Street-area residents. Maybe the organizers can somehow find a different venue for next time? In the meantime, I’ll have to miss it. I’m scheduled to cover a conference in Barcelona, so I’ll get to see the real Iberia. Both countries. I’ll fly in and out via Lisbon, so depending on my layover, maybe I could squeeze in tme to see that city.
So, I’m taking advantage of the HUGE Newark/Lisbon connection. Any should-sees or must-sees?
Is there a schedule of events/bands/etc? Someone told me there is a ‘best bacalao’ contest!?! Where I can I find info about this?
I WOULD LIKE INFORMATION ABOUT RENTING A SPACE IN THE PORTUGAL FESTIVAL. NEED TO KNOW IF I CAN STILL REGISTER FOR A SPACE TO SELL FOOD.
hey isnt this the last year for this feast.. i know they say this every year, i am so sick of hearing it’s the last time then it returns like a miracle of god every year…
I can’t wait. This event is so much fun.
enjoy it this year because of the fact that our new mayor is an a$$ like all the rest he is charging the feast for us of his holy police force which basically do nothing for the feast, all they do is hang out at the courner of iberia lot while the fights and all the garbage still comes into town. this feast is on it’s way out, and unfortunatly it’s one of newarks ironbounds biggest event. i really do hope we can all get some resolution on the matter and get this feast on it’s way to a brighter future before the final words that it is cancelled fr good. I can’t beleive that so many young people love this feast, yet all they care about is the block parties, gt off your drunken a$$es and start talking, make this feast happen every year and not just this last year. newark is for all of you, not just for the old timers that once set this feast up. They have come and are now on there way out, isnt anyone wondering who is going to keep up the feast after this year, does anyone care anymore.. god bless, hey at least the brazialian feast will be around..
I CAN’T WAIT!!!!…I’LL DEFF. BE THERE ALL WEEKEND! PORTUGAL!!!!
This is a terrible feast that has hardly anything Portuguese. There are lots of plywood stands selling medicore food and music blaring from the worst sound system. Then you have bands playing so loud as if they were in Giant Stadium. The cops are vigilant making sure residents are not allowed near there homes without a hassle.
Its an awful feast that just needs to be reduced to a Saturday afternoon and they need to focus on the “PORTUGUESE” part of it.
It’s not about the bad food or loud music being an African American and attending this festival i must say though every year a bunch of idiots get into fights and drunk according to what i’ve seen its deeper. It’s as if for one weekend in the year we can all come together and allows people to take pride in as well as make their presence known in our society. I will definetly miss it.
This feast should’ve dropped the name Portugal day along time ago, If anything it should be renamed to “Puerto Rican day” being that so many ignorant a**holes come down after their party is done waving their flags around with no respect and picking fights. I hope to God this feast ends once and for all, as a fellow Portuguese individual I’m sad to say that Portugal day has lost it’s Portuguese roots some time ago, the only day actually worth the time is Thursday night before the feast when it’s nothing but Portuguese music and Jorge Fereira.
No it is PORTUGAL day fu*ck Puerto Rican ppl there shit anyways fu*ck that PORTUGAL day is the shit and it shouldn’t b the last one!!!
I concur with most of the blogs staed before, i am also Portuguese, but do not feel that the feast/parade represents what is truly Portuguese, it has lost it’s allure.
I do agree that they should make it smaller & more intimate.
the majority of the people attending are not even Portuguese, i myself wish it would end, as we do not need this, Portuguese people have move up the ladder & unlike some other groups & people that all they do is complain about thenoise/drinking/music, etc. that’s what festivals are about, once a year is not going tokill anyone & jealousy does not get anyone anywhere.
I grew up whenthe Italians ha their St.Michalangelo Feast,a lthough smaller the same crap went on.
So stop complaining.
As a Brasilian-American in the Ironbound I have quit attending the “Portugal Day” celebration because it has lost its roots. This event has turned into a 1/2 mile long excuse to be drunk and disorderly in public without fear of the police arresting you. Our neighborhoods are littered with garbage, our cars are vandalized, people are assaulted, and we are unable to return to our homes due to street closings. I agree that the Portuguese seem to have become the minority and that the ethnic food and entertainment have all but disappeared. Even the classier restaurants in the area are unable to overcome the disruptive nature of the event and have all but given up even pretending it is a Portuguese Celebration.
hey george…check yourself out first..then comment. yes it has become disruptive only because people from perhaps..uhmm brazil have made it that way..see what happens when you open the gates and let the animals out…no punt inteded..
I’m going to have to disagree with you Portcandi, the Brazilians have behaved themselved very well these past years, you don’t really see them parading around with their flags. For the most part they stay in their 2 areas where Brazilians are dominant, either way they are Portuguese themselves so there is no reason that they shouldn’t be involved in our feast. It is the ignorant ricans and homo-thug african americans that just ruin the whole atmosphere. If you want to party and endulge in another culture, by all means come down and enjoy, but these retards come down wearing their flags on their shirts and around their necks parading around like a bunch of morons with absolutely no respect. The Portuguese civilians themselves have given up on the day for the most part and just stay home and have a BBQ in celebration of the holiday just to avoid the non-sense these idiots bring with them. I’ll end my rant here.
I cannot believe the amount of nonsense in this page. People are shifting the blame on everyone else, except themselves. Why blame the Puerto Ricans? Why blame the Brazilians?
This is the United States of America and therefore such events should not be carried out if people are not willing to learn from one another. But then again, we have many ignorant people living in our area. If you do not like things or the way things are run, then you have two options: 1. Shut your face or 2. Close your eyes.
Just like you have the option to close your eyes to what has been posted, I really don’t see anyone passing blame on anyone else outside of reason, you probably haven’t witnessed this sorry excuse for a Portuguese feast yourself. I recommend knowing wtf you are talking about before posting, these people are on the dime about the problems affecting the feast.
I with my man Timmy, these postings are right on target. Me, I haven’t enjoyed the feast for quite some time and to be quite honest I can’t wait till it ends. I’ve had friends beat up, sent to the hospital, arrested, etc., over nonsense and the cops that patrol the feast, I don’t even want to get started on that. A couple years ago my wife gets handcuffed and almost arrested cause some piece of s*it Newark cop didn’t want to let her go down her street to get to her house, pathetic.
There hasn’t been much Portuguese in the feast for some years now and yes a big part of that is because of people from outside the culture but the bigger part is because the new Portuguese generation doesn’t really care that its “PORTUGAL DAY”, they care more that it’s a chance for them to get drunk, high, and laid. Before anyone jumps at me and tries to bite my head off, I’VE BEEN THERE EVERY YEAR AND HAVE SEEN THIS HAPPEN AND IT’S GETTING WORST AS THE YEARS GO BY…
I’ll finish of with a little example of the pathetic mentality of a young Portuguese person now a days; I was walking thru ferry Saturday afternoon and there was a group of kids in front of me, a young girl wearing a portugal shirt and portugal daisy dukes and 3 young guys all jumping around waving puerto rican flags and yelling out “puerto rico” and the portuguese girl with them was jumping around with them like an idiot… now, I have nothing against PR people or any other culture.. My point is, if that girl was in NY Sunday for the PR feast wearing what she was wearing and waving around a Portuguese flag while yelling out “PORTUGAL” she wouldn’t make it home in one piece… That’s my two cents…
If alcohol is causing such a problem – why not run the festival dry? The partiers and alcoholics will get bored – leaving only the people who care about the event.
There are two things happening simultaneously with the Portuguese Festival/Parade one issue is that it is not organized well enough for the amount of people attending. Sure,one can brag that it is the largest celebration outside of Portugal but there still needs to be order and this event has lacked it. It outgrew the organizers grasp and the neighborhood little by little. Some Portuguese people only focus with disgust on the amount of outsiders that come to enjoy the event. But not all outsiders come here to get drunk, laid and be disruptive. If there are no parameters set then there will be disruption. The Feast of St. Gennaro in NYC’s Little Italy attracts people of all cultures. Certainly there’s good and bad about it (hell it used to be run by the mob!)but it remains an Italian festival enjoyed by many and it lasts more than two days. Why can’t that happen in Newark?
Portcandi, you are obviously bigoted towards Americans with a Brasilian heritage if not all non-white Americans. I am proud of my heritage and Portuguese roots. I am also pround to be an American. It is a shame that this event no longer is relevant and causes such disruption to a very nice community. I agree with the comments regarding the Newark police. Many times they are the instigators of the disruptions and do not seem to take seriously there purpose of protecting and serving the public good. Newark should do us all a favor and refuse licenses for future celebrations and concentrate on making the streets safe and our community a nicer place to live.
That’s mature. There is something to be said for nationalism, but last time I checked, the civil rights movement happened in the ’60s. I’m not so naive to assume that people from different backgrounds all like each other, but I’ve heard more sophisticated dialogue among the children in my neighborhood. Telling people where they have to move/live is a shameful mark on the history of our country; sending Native Americans to reservations, Japanese-Americans to internment camps, and segregating schools according to race. Your comments take us back 40 years. Maybe we should put up a big brick wall while we are at it.
I am also curious about the original intent of the feast and other festivities of Portugal day. Is it to be a time for Portuguese people to isolate themselves and pretend that they are back in Portugal, speaking perfect (untainted) Portuguese? Or is it an opportunity to celebrate and share a rich heritage with people of various backgrounds?
Adam, that’s the way it has been since the beginning of time. nothing has changed. ignorance has just gotten on a bigger scale. history continues to repeat itself. segregation continues to occur on another level. the whole WALL thing is not a bad idea!!! I’ve thought about it often.
the Portuguese feast is not a multi-cultural feast. therefore, I don’t care to hear anything other than the Portuguese celebrate THEIR DAY. PRs can celebrate in NY and keep their flags in their pockets. No one invades their feast, why do they feel the need to grace us with their PR garbage? Brazilians can stop riding our coat tails. it’s getting old already.
and what rich heritage did you come across at the feast? a bunch of drunks with skimpy clothes dancing on the bar at Adega. real rich culture there…
Joanna… Well said!!! You are 100% correct…
joanna u nailed it the party is horrible and the blame is for all the people who attend it if there wasnt any one there there would be no party the following year.It should be a feast to show everyone about the culture our food drinks and music it is no longer a portugese feast even the parade wtf of a parade is that we dont even have nice floats i mean st. patricks day parade is 100% better ….My suggestion would be to make the parade on Broad Street. what do u guys think
I agree with Cathy. Lets open the parade to the entire city. This is the 21st century!!
Joanna hit the nail right on the head, let’s not be naive and try to fool ourselves into thinking segregation is dead. Segregation is very much alive still and will be forever, there is nothing you can do about it. It’s proven that different cultures and different types of people like to associate themselves with similar people. The wall idea would be great IMO but one can only dream. LOL we should just develop a nice little area somewhere sort of like those town home villages and make it a portuguese only community, then we could lock the gates during our festival and our troubles would be over lol.
On a more serious note though, us Portuguese people really don’t mind sharing our culture with others of different background, just as long as they respect that it is our feast for our country and heritage. There should be no other flags waiving around or any stands selling things from different cultures. If the organizers would crack down on these situations instead of being money hungry we would notice a big improvement. The sad thing is that people now a days are purely ignorant and disrespectful so all attempts would fail automatically due to the masses. Just end the festival and be done with it would be the best bet. If you want Portuguese culter get yourself a plane ticket and go visit the motherland.
Plesde email The dates of this years street food fair
Why would people of other cultures want to invade something so boring as the Portuguese festival??
lame