Portimão celebrates Youth Day with Sunset Party and Youth Participatory Budget

International Youth Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, August 12, will be celebrated in Portimão with a Sunset Party (7:30 pm - 10 pm), at Lugar do Rio, which will also be marked by the launch of the second edition of the Youth Participatory Budget (OPJ).

The initiative will include a snack-party, street entertainment with fire-breathers (pyrophagy), jugglers, a living statue and an acrobat, to the sound of music by DJ Davon Goodchild.

The Portimão Participatory Youth Budget (OPJ) 2025-2026 will also be launched, with the City Council once again making 100 thousand euros available to finance the four proposals most voted for by young people, for a maximum amount of 25 thousand euros each.

Young people aged 12 to 30 can participate by presenting projects that focus on areas such as culture, leisure and sport, access to housing, health and risk behaviors, education, training and school dropout, employment, entrepreneurship, innovation and tourism, or other matters of recognized public interest.

Meetings are also scheduled between October 1st and November 7th to support the preparation and submission of proposals. From this date until February 27th, 2026, the Technical Proposal Analysis Committee will conduct an initial evaluation to select eligible proposals, making this list publicly available and opening a complaints period.

At a later stage, between March 1 and 22, 2026, the youth population will vote on the proposals, with the public presentation of the results scheduled for March 31, 2026, as part of the March Jovem program. The winning projects will then be implemented between May of that year and April 2027.

2024

During the first edition, launched in August 2024, and still in the execution period, 71 proposals were submitted, of which 23 were evaluated as eligible and 48 were considered ineligible.

The winning project of the OPJ 2024-2025 competition, presented by Gil Andrade and Júlio César, consolidates the Suprime Culinary & Cultural Fair, providing the Portimão community with a youth-led event that celebrates cultural and gastronomic diversity. Based on principles such as inclusion, sustainability, and innovation, it also includes the "Portimão Young Chef" competition, which encourages youth entrepreneurship.

At the launch of the first edition of the OPJ in 2024, Álvaro Bila, mayor of Portimão, argued that “youth play an increasingly vital role in the decisions that shape society, and the dynamism, creativity and innovative spirit that characterize them are a powerful force” that should be channeled for the benefit of the community.

He also considered that the participation of young people in decisions that affect the municipality “is important to ensure that policies and initiatives truly reflect the needs and aspirations of young people.”

The civic engagement tool will be implemented in partnership with the digital platform MyPolis. Applications can be submitted electronically on the platform at mypolis.eu, through the "OPJ Portimão 2025-2026" community. Voting will take place later through the same platform.

Further information can be obtained from the Sports and Youth Division of the municipality of Portimão, either by email ( [email protected] ), by telephone on 282 470 797; 282 470 893 or 282 248 519, or by online consultation at mypolis.eu.