“Through the Trails of Memory” is the theme of the 1st Santa Bárbara de Neve Hiking Festival

From the 7th to the 9th of February, the parish of Santa Bárbara de Nexe, in the interior of the Municipality of Faro, hosts the first hiking festival, held in this unique territory of the Algarve barrocal. Walks for all tastes, workshops and workshops, health and well-being activities and an interesting cultural program dedicated to local heritage and identity are the attractions of the Algarve Walking Season network's most recent festival.

The Santa Bárbara de Nexe Hiking Festival (WFSBN) arrives with dozens of activities for everyone who enjoys contact with nature and outdoor activities.

 In addition to enjoying nature and promoting the rich cultural heritage of the parish, the festival is also part of a project to identify, recover and preserve the many centuries-old trails that dot the entire territory of the parish, some of which have almost been lost.
The recovery of these trails began in 2005 with the gradual cleaning of some of these old paths, by the Santa Bárbara de Nexe Parish Council. A process that received a new boost in 2022, through the Participatory Budget, which allowed the recovery of these trails to continue and their improvement. In 2023, this effort ended up resulting in the classification of 129 local roads, intended for rural traffic and without car traffic, as public domain, culminating, in 2024, in the approval of 3 Small Routes by the Portuguese Camping and Mountaineering Federation. These 3 Small Routes are the starting point for this festival.

The first edition invites all hiking and nature lovers to come and discover these trails from a time when paths were traveled on foot or with animals and when they were the only means of communication for the people who inhabited these territories.

The strength of the popular culture of the parish of Santa Bárbara de Nexe is known to everyone, materialized, above all in popular music and poetry - where the accordion and traditional charolas stand out - but also in the abundance of stone that in difficult times, when the Purely manual work required sharpening ingenuity and creativity in crafts, it was the main form of subsistence for so many men and families.

These are also the stones that still today reveal some of these trails followed hundreds and hundreds of years ago, when people hadn't even dreamed of electric energy, and it was with the help of mules and donkeys that the longest distances were covered.
These are routes that still reveal the natural beauty of this other, often forgotten Algarve, framed in a landscape that offers us views of the sea in the distance, as well as the emergence of fields where the aromas of native plants such as thyme, rosemary and fennel reign , or even the presence of the old mills that still survive in these hills. Walking these trails becomes a true sensorial experience and a unique opportunity to truly connect with nature and the history and cultural heritage of this territory.

Many of these memories and knowledge are still alive in this territory, and it is in honor of this heritage, material and immaterial, that this festival was born.

The WFSBN is organized by the Santa Bárbara de Nexe Parish Council in partnership with the Algarviana Team, the Nexense Association and the Bifanas Team, with the support of the Municipality of Faro. It also counts on the partnership of numerous associations and local partners that enable and stimulate a large part of the festival's activities.

Program and registration at wfsbn.com