The site is currently hosting the biggest fair south of the Tagus River – the annual Fatacil arts, craft and agriculture exhibition – which started in Lagoa last Friday.
The objective, Lagoa council said, is to equip the site so that locals can enjoy it all year round and not just during the ten days of Fatacil.
Lagoa Council Mayor Francisco Martins explained the investment will don the large site with “structures and an architectural framework that will make the space more pleasant for locals to use it year-round and not just during the ten days of Fatacil.”
Improved security, the elimination of architectural barriers, a riding area and sports equipment are some of the interventions to be covered by the project, which should be completed over the next three years and will be publicly unveiled at Fatacil this weekend.
“We don’t intend to lose Fatacil’s identity or make it something it’s not other than what it has been over the years, but what we do want to do obviously is give it a new language and a new look”, Mayor Martins said.
Fatacil culminates this Sunday with a concert by the Portuguese ‘father of rock’, Rui Veloso.
Some 200,000 people are expected to visit the event, the 37th Fatacil Fair, which started Friday and runs until Sunday.
Night one of Fatacil saw massive queues still snaking around the site at the time the nightly concert was due to start, at approximately 10.30pm.
The event was so busy in fact that last weekend more ticket offices had to be opened.