Several hundred people were in attendance to cheer on Quinn Barreiros when the featured performer of the Portugual National Day celebration took the stage late Saturday night at the climax of the day-long festival at Churrasqueira Bairrada in Mineola.
The popular Portuguese vocalist Barreiros, donning his signature black fedora and playing the concertina, rocked the crowd from the first notes he sang a little after 10 p.m. until he completed his performance of traditional and pop music an hour later.
It was the culmination of what had been a long-time dream of Churrasqueira Bairrada owner Manuel Carvalho to stage a celebration of Portuguese National Day, traditionally observed on June 10.
Carvalho had sold 1,000 tickets for the event, which doubled as a fundraiser for a number of local organizations.
“I didn’t expect this,” Carvalho said at the festival in the parking lot of Bairrada early Saturday evening.
Smiling broadly as he spoke, Carvalho promised a second annual celebration next year.
A large crowd had gathered in the afternoon under large tents that shielded them from the sun to watch on several large screens Portugal play Germany in the opening round of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. The attendees ate grilled chicken, pork and fish prepared in Bairrada style, and even Portugal’s 1-0 loss to the Germans couldn’t dampen their spirits.
Storm clouds threatened late in the afternoon, but raindrops fell only sporadically as the dancers and musicians of the Mineola Portuguese Society took the stage.
The dancers, dressed in colorful traditional Portuguese costumes and performing songs from the country’s folkloric tradition, captivated the large crowd present with their high-energy performance to a song performed by concertinas.
Patricia Mendes, a young 16-year veteran of the dance group, said she started learning the dances from her mother, Alcinda, when she was four years old. She said she was proud to be performing at Portuguese National Day with what she said was a special group.
“After so many years, everyone in the dance group becomes your family. Everyone has a passion to dance,” Mendes said. “If I ever have children, I want them to dance. It’s a way to maintain your heritage.”
Anna Teixeira, a freshman who plays violin in the Mineola High School Orchestra, said she was moved to learn to play the concertina two years ago to play traditional Portuguese tunes she’d heard her parents play when she was growing up.
“I just like it. I love the music,” she said.
Portuguese National Day, Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades Portuguesas in Portuguese, or literally, Day of Portugal, Camões, and the Portuguese Communities, is celebrated annually in Portugal and among Portuguese people worldwide on June 10. The day commemorates the death of Portugal’s revered poet Luís Vaz de Camões, an literary icon of Portuguese nationalism, who died on that date in 1580. Camões wrote an epic poem retelling the exploits of Portuguese explorers.
Sixty years after his death, on December 1, 1640, Portugal regained its independence – which the day also celebrates – by driving out the Spanish and making John of Bragança, King John IV of Portugal.
“This is beautiful. It’s a great time,” said Gabriel Marques, vice president of a Mineola Portuguese Soccer Club. The club has existed as long as the Mineola Portuguese Society itself.
Two Portuguese pop music groups, Centerfalls from Massachusetts and a local band, Sugartown, also performed at the day-long festival.
Another group of traditional Portuguese dancers and musicians from Farmingville also entertained the crowd early in the evening.
Some of the funds from the event will go to the Mineola Athletic Association, the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the Mineola Junior Fire Department and the Mineola Auxiliary Police Department, according to Carvalho.
“Manny’s a great guy,” said Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss, who was in attendance on Saturday night along with village trustees George Durham and Paul Cusato.
