Around 60 national authors and 20 foreign authors will be taking part in the event, a handful of them British, which programme coordinator Inês Pedrosa says will offer the chance for the matter of Brexit and the current European situation to be thought out at a “high intellectual level.”
Running between 9 and 18 September, FIC – the country’s largest cultural event – also has over 100 different initiatives in the pipeline.
Organisers are aiming for the festival to be a true family-orientated event, with a balance between the smaller and wider audiences who are interested in the affair.
Hopes are that FIC will become “an unparalleled festival of international projection”, and entrance is free.
Ms. Pedrosa added that the festival also aims to prove that culture does not simply boil down to theatre, music or cinema.
“The intention is to allow reflection on society, history and the economy through literature, and that is why we have many authors concerned with those realities already booked in.”
This year’s participating authors are all different to last year’s, and a series of interesting debates on matters like social values and the Portuguese language are being organised.
The theme for the 2016 edition of FIC is ‘William Shakespeare: The Heritage of Freedom’, around which a series of meetings and debates have also been organised.
Questioned by newspaper Diário de Notícias (DN) about the event’s budget, Cascais Mayor Carlos Carreira reportedly became somewhat irritated and gave a long-winded answer, stressing that the town hall’s accounts are “transparent” and that “culture doesn’t have a price.”
According to DN, he eventually conceded that around €140,000 has been spent on the event, and according to other sources, DN said a further €500,000 is being footed by partners.