More than a Ferris wheel: the Faro tradition every Algarve family should know

Archive image: the Feira de Santa Iria at sunset, Largo de São Francisco, Faro. Photo: Samantha Cunningham / Algarve Family Guide.

In 1596, English troops under the Earl of Essex sacked Faro and sailed home with the bishop's library. Those books are still in Oxford's Bodleian Library. According to Faro's district archive, some historians date the city's October fair to that same year, when Filipe I (Philip II of Spain, then also king of Portugal) granted it the status of feira franca, a fair with royal trading privileges. The aim, they argue, was to revive trade and food supplies in a plundered city. Others believe the fair is older still, possibly medieval.

The name comes from the calendar rather than from Faro. Santa Iria, or Saint Irene, was a young woman from near Tomar, in central Portugal, said to have been killed in the 7th century. Her feast day is 20 October, and because the fair runs through the second half of the month, it carries her name.

For centuries this was a working fair. Until 1906 it was held between Largo do Pé da Cruz and Campo da Trindade, before moving to Largo de São Francisco, where it still stands. In 2021 Dora Sousa, then a linen seller at the fair for 50 years, told Jornal do Algarve that before shopping centres, fairs were when families stocked up. Faro's, one of the last before winter, was where people bought long coats, shoes, bedding and dried fruit for the cold months. Those crowds, she said, "made the year" for many traders.

That shared calendar still matters. Sandra Almeida, born and raised in Faro, told the same paper the fair holds her best memories, from childhood into adulthood. In recent years Santa Iria's day has brought a mass and a procession through the fair with her image, lent by the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Faro.

This year the organiser, the municipal company Ambifaro, has set out pitches for farturas (Portuguese fried dough, dusted with sugar and cinnamon), pão com chouriço, bolo do caco, roast chestnuts, torrão de Alicante nougat and dried fruit, alongside pottery, lace, cork jewellery and rag dolls, rides for adults and children, and a gastronomy pavilion. Look past the Ferris wheel, and the fair that once prepared Faro for winter is still there.

Before you go

• When: Thursday 15 to Sunday 25 October 2026.
• Where: Largo de São Francisco, beside Faro's old town.
• Opening times: Thursday 15, 17:00 to midnight. Fridays and Saturdays, 15:00 to 01:00. Sunday 18 to Thursday 22, 15:00 to midnight. Sunday 25, 15:00 to 23:00. The gastronomy pavilion opens at 17:00 on weekdays, 15:00 at weekends.
• Entry: Free. Budget for rides and food.
• Parking: The Pontinha underground car park is free on weekdays from 12 to 28 October, and parking is allowed on Avenida Eng. Joaquim Lopes Belchior. A temporary taxi rank stands at the start of Rua Dona Teresa Ramalho Ortigão.
• With children: a 15:00 opening on most days allows an after-school visit. Santa Iria's day is Tuesday 20 October; the 2026 programme was not yet published at the time of writing, so check with Ambifaro (289 897 250).