“Pyromusical” Atlantic Festival; June 7th – 29th
The Atlantic Festival is a populat annual event organized by the Regional Department of Culture, Tourism and Transport which according to their publicity “combines animation and culture”. The festival marks the entry of Madeira into summer time and integrates a diverse set of initiatives which extend throughout the month of June including the Madeira Music Festival, the Regional Arts Week, and the famous “pyromusical” spectacles where each Saturday night there are shows combining fireworks and music. These take place occur on the jetty outside the Pontinha (Porto do Funchal) at 22h30 on the four consecutive Saturdays of the month and last approximately 20 minutes – 8th (a display by Spain), 15th (China), 22nd and 29th (both by Portuguese companies).
For its part, the Madeira Music Festival takes place during the first half of June and is programmed in varied “genres, styles and repertoires, seeking to captivate all types of audience with the work of national and international performers”.
Regional Arts Week is the responsibility of the Office of Arts Education Coordinator/SREC, and unfolds through a series of events that take place in the central areas of Avenida Arriaga, Space Infoart SRT/DRT in the Auditorium of the Municipal Garden.
The full schedule for the month is replicated below:
Portugal’s amended budget approved
Portugal Daily View reports that the country’s amended budget was approved on Friday at the Cabinet of Ministers meeting, which includes measures to replace those recently suspended by the constitutional court.
Under the new budget, civil servants will go from working a minimum of 35 hours to 40 hours a week. Pensioners and civil servants from the Civil Servants’ Pension Fund will deduct 0.75% more for ADSE this year and holiday subsidies will be paid but not until November. The government says the new budget “looks to minimise its impact on the Portuguese’s disposable income, opting for the structural reduction of expenditure and not by a hike in taxes.”
The government cannot fail to notice that all this effort and caution to avoid an impact on the disposable income of the Portuguese creates new risks to budgetary implementation”, said Portugal’s state secretary for cabinet affairs, Luís Marques Guedes, at the end of a council of ministers meeting where the document was approved. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho also acknowledged these risks. “It is evident that there are budgetary risks”, he said. “We haven’t got a magic wand or a crystal ball to make the country immune of shocks, be it external or internal”, he said.
Other measures include introducing an extraordinary fiscal credit for companies which invest between €3m and €5m from 1 June to 31 December. These companies will benefit from a reduction of IRC of 25% to 7.5%. The objective is to make the country more competitive and to attract investment, as well as to create employment. The government also wants to go ahead with mutually agreed terminations in the public service.
The amended budget is based on a macroeconomic scene which was the subject of consensus during thec ountry’s seventh assessment. The Portuguese economy is set to contract 2.3% this year, meaning an adjustment of the budget deficit of the previous target of 4.5% of GDP to 5.5%. However the think-tank OECD forecast a deeper recession this week, which could prevent the country reaching its bailout goals.
Dengue update:
Portugal’s general health department said on Tuesday that two new cases of dengue fever had been confirmed on the island of Madeira, but both were imported from Angola and last year’s outbreak was still considered to be controlled.“Since the last update on 7 April, 12 probable cases of dengue had been reported, but only two were confirmed in patients who had arrived on the island from Angola”, the department said.
I thought the arrangements for the Atlantic festival fireworks had changed and it was no longer taking place at the harbour but had been moved to Santa Catarina park because of the harbour works ?
The fireworks will still be from harbour, but the park will remain open for better viewing…..
Fortelaza do Pico would been a nice view point of the fireworks over Funchal harbour. Sadly the gates are locked at night.
I think the Jazz Festival is 4 – 6 JULY. (Thought June couldn’t be THAT
busy!)
Hi,
Just me looking for advice again (as usual!!).
My husband can no longer drive due to illness and I don’t drive. Could you tell me if you have to pay insurance and tax even if the car is off the road (in the driveway)? I was thinking the insurance wouldn’t need to be paid but do you have to tell the car tax authorities (who are they – where are they?) so that they know (got fined 15 euros this year for paying the car tax one day late – 4 years ago???) so quite important that I find out.
Trying to sell the car but it seems to be quite difficult unless you want to buy another one. Any ideas on the best way to go about this? Its a nice wee car – 2007 Suzuki Swift (automatic) and the mileage is under 25,000 kms.
All advice would be much appreciated.
Betty
Well spotted jaquine! Item about the Jazz Festival deleted – you are quite correct – it is in July.
Hi Betty,
Sorry, can’t actually help with the questions about the car tax, but I do know what you mean about buying and selling cars. We had been looking around at just about every stand we could find to try and find the right car, and most of these ‘salesmen’ just don’t seem interested in actually trying to sell anything. I was amazed to see the condition of some of the cars for sale – for some I wouldn’t even of considered them at half the price they were asking!
I would imagine that the price they offer you would be very low, and even then make it seem like they are doing you a favour. Have you considered maybe a private sale through something like olx or cybermadiera? Don’t know what’s actually involved in doing that, but maybe someone here can help.
Hi MartinPN,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, it is difficult. It cost 10,000 Euros 2 years ago (ridiculous!) but we had to buy it because it was an automatic as my husband was diagnosed with Primary Progressive MS in 2010 which initially affected his left leg so driving had become difficult. He can’t drive at all now as this disease also affects his eyes.
I just want a fair price for it but feel I would rather give it away than hand it over to a dealer for virtually nothing.
Where’s BUYANYCAR.COM when you need it????????????????
Such is life!!
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Betty
Betty – sorry to hear all your bad news. We will ask around to see if anyone is interested – what price would you be looking at?
Jon —- Dealer wise VSA Madeira are good to BUY cars from, in our experience, in our opinion – we got a superb 2 year old new model POLO (10,000 Km) at a fraction of the cost of other dealers and 1 year on it is still brilliant! We did squeeze a fair price for our old Golf and fair to say, much more than others were prepared to give….BUT the used car buying market is not good, indeed, many “roadside” cars near us for private sale….
Betty, if you wish to e-mail us via our web site, please do…..x3w’s casaparsonsDOTcom
This has probably been mentioned on here before, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it…
There is a live webcam showing the Airport
www[dot]ustream[dot]tv/embed/423053
Sometimes takes a few seconds to show anything after clicking on the play icon.
Hi MartinPN, great link for that web cam, have added to favourites.