Good Sounds marks 20 years with community resistance and generational renewal

“ O spirit stands. We want to keep the essence of the village and keep it from getting lost. If the village is lost, this is no longer Bons Sons”, said Lusa Filipe Cartaxo, president of the direction of the Sport Club Operário de Cem Soldos (SCOCS), organizing association of the festival that, under the motto “Come live the village”, expects to receive about 32,000 visitors over four days.

In that small village of the municipality of Tomar, district of Santarém, where about 800 people reside and the organizing association gathers more than a thousand partners, preparations intensified in the last days.

Streets, wide, garages, backyards, threshing floors and gardens are once again transformed into an open-air cultural enclosure, hosting ten stages spread throughout the locality, each with its own identity, in a model that distinguishes the Good Sons in the national panorama.

Philip Cartaxo knows this transformation well. He was 10 years old when he helped prepare the first edition in 2006, opening holes for poles, passing cables and accompanying the older ones in assembly tasks.

Today, at the age of 30, he leads the organizing association and continues to see in the participation of the population the biggest heritage of the festival.

“There is a feeling of very large belonging. People want to have the village at its best to receive those who visit us ", said, pointing out as an example the newly painted houses, the public spaces prepared to host thousands of festivals and the involvement of the Board of Freguesia in cleaning and beautifying the locality.

According to the responsible, about 600 to 700 people will be involved in the organization during the four days of the festival, among inhabitants of the village, family, friends, volunteers from other regions and support teams, ensuring from the assembly of the stages to bars, kitchens, camping, transport, information and logistics.

The edition of the 20 years also marks a renewal in the artistic direction of the festival, now assumed by João Rufino, 39 years old, and Sérgio Alves, 37, both natives of Cem Soldos and linked to the Good Sons since youth.

The two prefer, however, to define themselves as part of an extended and collective programming direction, refusing individual roles in a project built by dozens of people.

After years linked to production, technical teams and, more recently, programming, they represent a new generation that grew up with the festival “inside the house” and which now assumes the responsibility of preserving the identity of Good Sons without abdicating renewal.

“The festival itself is already a resistance movement,” Sérgio Alves said, explaining that the manifesto of this edition seeks to honor “the people who keep making Good Sons happen”, voluntarily reconciling the organization of the festival with family and professional life.

“It’s a resistance to dropout, laziness and easyness. It is a resistance in the sense of persistence, of wanting to do ", he added.

For João Rufino, this idea becomes even more meaningful in a context marked by individualism and the progressive disappearance of rural communities.

“Individualism and the loss of communities have won a lifestyle that we know in childhood. This is what we continue to defend and that the Good Sons represents,” he said, sustaining that the festival continues to affirm the importance of culture outside the major urban centers.

The program maintains the exclusive commitment to Portuguese music, bringing together consecrated artists and new projects from different generations, regions and musical styles, in a diversity that those responsible consider part of the festival's identity.

“ The biggest compliment we can receive is someone who says he already has a ticket but hardly knows any name of the poster ", said João Rufino, defending that the Good Sons must continue to challenge the public to discover new musical projects.

Among the novelties of this edition stand out the Palco Rosa Ramalho, among others installed in gardens and eiras of the village, and the strengthening of parallel programming, which includes cinema, debates, courses, workshops, exhibitions and activities for families.

“There is much more to discover in Hundred Soldos than just music,” João Rufino summarized, indicating that the goal is to provide an experience where visitors can attend concerts, participate in conversations about territory and culture, discover the local heritage and live the daily life of the village.

The Bons Sons takes place between August 6th and 9th, with maximum capacity for about 8,500 people per day, distributed across the various spaces of the village, maintaining the model that, two decades ago, transformed a small community in the interior of the country into a national reference of Portuguese music and community participation.

The full program can be found at the festival site (www.bonssons.pt).