Évora 2024

The Lisbon-Telheiras group were the hosts of the 28th Iberian Gathering of Scottish Country Dance in Évora from Friday, March 8th to Sunday March 10th 2024. This event was originally scheduled for 2021 and had to be postponed due to the pandemic . 

 THERE ARE PHOTOS AND LINKS TO VIDEOS ON THIS PAGE

A pdf with a list of the dances done in classes (with brief instructions) can be downloaded from here

 BELOW IS THE INFORMATION WHICH WAS GIVEN TO PARTICIPANTS AND WOULD-BE PARTICIPANTS BEFORE THE WEEKEND, AND KEPT HERE JUST FOR REFERENCE.

Contact: Roger Picken and Sue Willdig, suerog (a) mail.telepac.pt (please change (a) to @ to send an email)

You can download the final schedule for the weekend  here (updated 8th February 2024). The dance programmes can be downloaded from at the end of this webpage.  

BBC weather forecast for Évora https://www.bbc.com/weather/2268406

About the Location: Évora is a World Heritage site and university city in southern Portugal, about 130 kilometres east of Lisbon. It has a beautiful historic centre, including some famous sites like the Roman Temple and the Chapel of the Bones, and a spectacular prehistoric monument only 15 km away, the Cromlech of the Almendres, parts of which are 8000 years old.   You can download here our  personal list of recommended restaurants in Évora 

Getting to Évora:  Évora can be reached by over 20 coaches a day from the main Lisbon coach station at Sete Rios (about 10 minutes by taxi from the airport). You can consult https://rede-expressos.pt/ for prices and times, and you can book tickets online. (Some people have found the site does not like their credit card; if this happens, try booking via the https://www.omio.pt/ site, or your national version of that site  if the "pt" one still does not accept your credit card.  There are also coaches from Lisboa-Oriente with Flixbus, https://www.flixbus.pt/ which can be booked online (try your national version of the flixbus site, if the "pt" one does not accept your credit card) . Flixbus is a good option for people arriving at Lisbon airport, because Lisboa-Oriente is only three stops from the Aeroporto metro station, and you can just "tap your card" to pay for the metro trip instead of queueing to buy a ticket. The coach journey takes between 1 hour 20 minutes and 1 hours 55 minutes depending on what route the coach takes (Flixbus only seems to take the fast, 1h20m route) and should not cost more than 20 euros return, and could be much less.  The coach terminus in Évora is only a short, five-minute walk from the venue hotel, the Hotel Vila Galé Évora. There are also about 4 trains a day to and from Évora, but the station is some way from the hotel (a regular taxi is the best option from the train station; apparently there is only one Uber driver in Évora!). The train takes about 90 minutes and you can catch it from various stations in Lisbon. Here is the English-language for the national train company https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en

This downloadable document has all the above travel information about getting to Évora, plus a screenshot of some Flixbus timetables and a map showing the short walk from the bus station to the hotel.

Staying in Lisbon before or after the weekend? You can download our Lisbon tips and travel information here

Our hotel: The hotel is the 4-star Vila Galé hotel just outside the old city walls. It has a 475m2 ballroom with no pillars and a high ceiling. There are windows all down one of the sides of the room, which open out on to a terrace.The floor is vinyl, and was considered to be quite good by Scottish dancers at a previous event in the hotel (they thought it was wood!).  The hotel has its own underground car park, which participants in the weekend can use at the special price of 5 euros a day. There is also free parking on land nearby, and also at the nearby coach station. 

Besides a large outdoor pool (which could be a touch cold in March!), the hotel has an indoor pool, Turkish bath and sauna, all of which can be used by hotel guests free of charge.These indoor facilities are rather small, so you need to book the time you want to use them when you are already at the hotel. When you book their use, you will be given a towel; to use the sauna and turkish bath you should be over 16 years of age.; the pool is open to all but you are supposed to wear a swimming cap. The hotel's official site has lots of information about the facilities, and includes this lovely video with aerial views of the city https://vimeo.com/251694613 There is a "digital brochure" here  You can download a tourist map of Évora here (about 2 MB) - unfortunately it does not show Hotel Vila Galé, but it is opposite the bus station!

Teachers and musicians: Andrew Nolan (Edinburgh), Ramona Rank (Munich) and Matthias Rank (Munich). Andrew Nolan is coming both as a musician (pianist) and as one of our teachers. Andrew has played often at summer school at St. Andrews and can be seen in many videos on youtube, as he is an outstanding dancer. Our other teacher is Ramona Rank, who has taught in various European countries as well as at summer school in St. Andrews. Her husband, Matthias Rank, is our fiddler, and has played at numerous weekend events, and at summer school. Our piper for the Grand March will be the excellent Sjoerd van Leersum. You can see a video of his piping at the Jerez Weekend here https://youtu.be/7cmTy5GlCg8

Price for the weekend: 240 euros per person in a double room and 320 euros per person in a single room. The hotel can only make triple rooms by adding in an extra bed to a double room; the price for such a "triple" room will be 217 euros per person. The price for a special family room (two adults and two children under 12) is available on request . Children under 12 are free if they share their parents' room . As at most Iberian Weekends, this price includes 2 nights’ accommodation with breakfast at the hotel, 2 buffet dinners with all drinks, 2 classes with live music, 2 evening dances, and 2 walkthroughs. Lunch is *not* included.  If you are 36 or under, you may be able to qualify for one of a small number of non-residential places with a special price.

Excursions:  For Saturday afternoon, we have arranged an optional two-hour visit to the prehistoric monuments, with Ebora Megalithica http://www.eboramegalithica.com/. This will be a shortened version of the usual tour, in order to get people back in time for the walkthrough, and will be limited to a maximum number of 50 participants. The price will depend on whether you go in the guide’s minibus (15 euros; limited to 7 people) or simply follow the bus in your own car or in someone else's car (5 euros per person). Registration and payment for the visit will be at the weekend itself. POST-WEEKEND UPDATE : Unfortunately this tour was cancelled, because the guide was unwell (she lost her voice)!

As an alternative to the megalith tour, we are also now setting up a guided (walking) tour of Évora with a professional guide. The price will be 5 euros per person, and again registration and payment will be at the weekend itself (limit of 50 participants). The time slot for the guided walk will be the same as for the visit to the prehistoric monuments  (2.15 p.m.- 4.15 p.m.) so they are alternative options. Naturally you can also just choose to do your own thing. 

This downloadable document has the full details of the two optional tours, including meeting points, etc

Extra nights:  Curiously, the price of extra nights (bed and breakfast, b&b) at the hotel is the same regardless of whether it is one person staying in a single room or two people staying in a double room. The price for the 2024 event  will be 110 euros per room per night b&b (so 55 euros each for people sharing, b&b).  In the case of a "triple" room, the extra night price for b&b is 148,50 per room (so 49,50 euros per person b&b.) If you want to book half-pension for your extra night, (so including a main meal as well), then the increase per extra night per adult is 23 euros plus 5,50 euros for drinks .

We think these extra night  prices are rather expensive  so you might want to check out alternative hotels if you want to arrive early for the weekend.  An interesting option we  checked out ourselves is the youth hostel in Évora (HI Évora - Pousada de Juventude; it is centrally-located,  open to all ages, has rooms with private bathroom, and includes breakfast! One drawback is that the official check-in time is only from 6 p.m. onwards; however we were told that it's usually possible  to check in  by 4 p.m., and you can drop off luggage before that. Évora city council also provides an interesting list of accommodation options which could be useful for those extra nights, see https://www.cm-evora.pt/visitante/onde-ficar/ 

If you do decide to stay in the venue hotel,  you should book your own extra nights there, explaining that you will be attending the Scottish dance weekend. The email address for this is evora.events@vilagale.com  (note this has changed from a previous address we were given) , and the name of our contact is Sandra Valeriano. You should received an email back from Sandra confirming your extra nights. The extra nights are simply paid for on check-in; there is no need to send any credit card information in advance.  

On the Thursday night before the weekend, we can now confirm there will be a  Portuguese folk dance class given by Marta Guerreiro, free to people coming for the Weekend! The class will be held 5.15 p.m. - 6.30 p.m. at the PédeXumbo dance association, Rua de Eborim 18, Évora (the dance hall is called “Espaço Celeiros”). The location is within the city walls and about 15 minutes’ walk from the hotel. All welcome! Map https://maps.app.goo.gl/PLpHoLKpJXsYbPHF8

Pre-registration, registration and payment:  This is mainly organized via the leaders of the various Iberian groups, in order to streamline the work involved for the host group. Therefore, if at all possible, all “non-Iberians” are kindly requested to associate themselves with one or other of the Iberian groups in order to register for the Weekend and make their payments. 

"Pre-registration" is an expression of interest in coming.  The deadline for payment to confirm that interest was October 20th, 2023 (deposit of 100 euros per person, regardless of the type of room). The deadline for payment of the balance of the money was 20th January 2024. 

Cancellations and refunds:  Please note the dates in points (b), (c) and (d) below. 

(a) Full refund at any time if a replacement can be found from the waiting list;

(b) Individual cancellations on or before 6th February 2024: full refund (up to a maximum of 22 cancellations);

(c) Individual cancellations on or before 22nd February 2024: full refund (up to a maximum of 15 cancellations);

(d) Individual cancellations from 23rd February 2024: we will do our best to give at least a partial refund.

Dance programme:  The dance programme was prepared back in 2020, because the  Évora Weekend was originally due to take place in 2021 but had to be postponed because of the pandemic! In  2023, the programme was slightly revised, with six of the thirty-two dances being changed for slightly easier ones, and a tiny change made in the order of the dances on the Friday night (two dances swapped their positions) The links are the same as before. If you would prefer a ready-made pdf file, please scroll down further after the links.

Link for the revised FRIDAY Évora dance programme (strathspey server link): https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/28129/ You can access cribs and videos from this link.  

Link for the revised SATURDAY Évora Saturday dance programme (strathspey server link): https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/28130/ You can access cribs and videos from this link.  

Pdf file for Friday Ball programme

Pdf file for Saturday Ball programme