Marejada

Held in the fishing city of Itajaí in Santa Catarina state since 1987, Marejada celebrates the region's Portuguese heritage alongside its most important economic activity — fishing. The festival's name plays on the Portuguese word for 'sea', and its central pavilion has hosted night after night of dancing and celebration since it began.

As the local descendants of Portuguese settlers, Itajaí's residents built the festival specifically around seafood and beer, giving Marejada something of a beer-hall character alongside its maritime theme. Souvenir plates from the festival carry its full name — 'Festa Portuguesa e do Pescado', celebrating Portuguese heritage and fish — along with painted symbols of the celebration: a fish in a cap, shrimp on a plate, and dancers in traditional Portuguese dress.

With around 600 individual attractions across a substantial exhibition space, Marejada has grown into one of the more significant regional food festivals in southern Brazil, reflecting a part of the country's identity shaped as much by Portuguese and German immigration as by its more widely known Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous heritage.