The World’s Biggest São João is the spectacle Campina Grande offers Brazil. More than 30 days of celebration, with free admission. The place is Parque do Povo (PP), a pavilion in the city center with more than 200 kiosks, restaurants (see the PP Map), and brand activations. The main stage features local and national artists. Highlighting forró, but also covering other popular styles like rap and electronic music. Throughout the Park, smaller stages host pé-de-serra trios, bands, and repentistas — including at the traditional Pyramid, a covered space that is part of the festival’s history.
For those who don’t know a Northeastern São João, I want to explain why it’s so special to us. The festival Campina Grande creates is one of the many hidden beauties in Brazil. I hope someone finishes this text wanting more to go to Paraíba next year. In recent days, besides enjoying the festival, I talked with excellent people. I heard good ideas about the future of the World’s Biggest São João, and at the end of this text I want to shine a light on them.
The Park
Even though the shows set the pace of the festival, São João is bigger than the main stage. Parque do Povo starts being prepared in March to transform into a scenic city that receives millions of people in June. This year especially, an expansion renovation connected Parque Evaldo Cruz through a tunnel that crosses a city street. The built structure honors and recalls the history of Campina Grande, with poetic license for the many activations of sponsoring brands.
The entire Park area is fenced during São João, with Sebastião Donato street being converted daily into festival space. The gates open to the public at 4:00 p.m. at the eight entrances where agents do mandatory bag checks. Bringing drinks in is not allowed. The venue’s maximum capacity is 73 thousand people, a mark reached on the days of the biggest shows.
Watch on Instagram: São João de Campina Grande (@omaiorsjdomundo)
After entering the PP, you live in another universe. In size, it’s about 6 soccer fields, or a 15-minute walk from Açude Novo, at the highest point, to the main stage at the end of the Park. The crowd starts in the late afternoon and peaks around midnight, the time of the main act. The audience is quite diverse, including families, children, and young people who stay until the gates close (at 3:00 a.m.).
Food and drinks
The culinary experience of the Northeast is a show in itself. The city’s most classic restaurants sell carne de sol, macaxeira, arrumadinho, and other typical dishes. I loved the Bodódromo, which offered Bode In Box: little boxes of baião-de-dois with options of picanha and chopped goat. There are also kiosks for churros, crepes, corn, and other snacks, like the popular Banana Nevada pizza from Gorlami. Curiously, it wasn’t that easy to find pamonha or canjica.
For those who like to drink, there’s no shortage of options inside Parque do Povo. Besides store-bought drinks, offered at listed prices and only from authorized brands, the stalls sell many drinks you only find in Campina Grande. It’s not hard to find someone with a bottle of Beba e Gammy, a traditional drink of the city’s nights. There are also some exclusive São João brands like Bom que Dói. Cane spirit with rapadura honey, which was more common before authorized-brand control, is still sold and worth it.
Practically every restaurant and vendor accepts Pix, card, and tap-to-pay.
Stage experience
After eating and buying a drink, the forrozeiros of Parque do Povo enjoy shows by popular artists on the cultural stages, almost always playing forró. Those stages represent a movement that needs strength, but there is definitely Northeastern music at the World’s Biggest São João. Forró bands and trios form a parallel program to the main stage. At Palco Zé Lagoa, named in honor of the variety show “Forró de Zé Lagoa” that Rosil Cavalcanti broadcast in the 1950s, I also heard two emboladores de coco improvising verses about whoever walked by.
On the main stage, the general public shares space with the VIP box (tickets cost about R$200.00 per night), an interesting option for watching a show with more comfort. Elba Ramalho, Nattan, Magníficos, and many other artists took the stage across the 33 days of festival this year. The biggest acts play on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, or especially on São João night (June 24). Aside from the VIP box, there are no physical divisions, but groups divide themselves very well in their spaces.
Bathrooms
The bathrooms at Parque do Povo aren’t known for a good experience. Distributed between built and portable toilets, maintenance works but is insufficient on the busiest days. The expansion resulted in better bathrooms being built. For those seeking more comfort, there are private bathroom options that charge a day rate, plus the VIP box.
Safety
When I was a kid, insecurity at São João in Campina was a worrying topic. It was nothing new: fights inside forrós were even the subject of many songs. The first forró recorded by Luiz Gonzaga, Forró de Mane Vito, already narrated “I pulled my dagger, blew out the lamp, threw everyone into the yard, made the samba end.” But that is a portrait of the past. Some traditions we leave in the verses of songs.
Today, Parque do Povo is a safe place. There are police, guards, and security throughout the event, both circulating and at fixed stations. The monitoring system, with 265 cameras, allows identification of open arrest warrants by facial recognition. Isolated cases of petty theft still occur, and just like on Copacabana’s shoreline or in London, it’s good to watch your phone.
The crowd
But none of this would be possible without the main ingredient: the People of the Park. The real magic of São João is in the people who are the festival. Those who enjoy the night create a great carnival — fun and enchanting. Those who work across the city — driving, cooking, hosting — put in the care and Northeastern warmth that makes everyone want to come back to Paraíba. Biliu, to whom I dedicate this text, declared: Whoever comes to Campina asks to stay, and so it has been.
The city, which swapped the economic center from the Fair for the Shopping mall in the 1990s, has every incentive to modernize and look like a metropolis. But — thankfully — the strong tradition of an honest and welcoming people never wavered.
Parallel programming
São João in Campina is also bigger than Parque do Povo. To fill the daytime hours, there are several options: Craft Fair Hall; Vila Sítio São João; Vila do Artesão; private parties like Soul João and restaurant programming. For those willing to travel, the options are excellent: from São João de Galante to the Festa do Bode Rei in Cabaceiras, the interior of Paraíba delivers a singular experience.
Proposals
In conversations around the city, São João is always on the agenda. I talked and noted down some ideas about the festival’s future and would like to share them here.
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The expansion of Parque do Povo was a success. Besides relieving the growing crowd, it created an excellent urban space. I hope it becomes a stage for other events throughout the year, with lighting and safety for visitors.
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Completing the works was a relevant achievement, given the history. That shows maturity in the local public sector coordinating urban projects and opens space for more transformation in the city.
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Brand activations, which bring money and visibility to the festival, could have pre-produced themes that exalt the culture and history of the festival. I feel that theme faded after privatization, which presents an opportunity to adjust incentives.
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The Memorial do São João is a beautiful project that preserves the origin of our festival, but it’s hard to hear about inside the Park. Creating a permanent physical space is fundamental to strengthening the people’s connection with culture (see Casa dos Oito Baixos in Caruaru).
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What is the long-term project for local artists? I see room to exercise the cultural production chain in the city, with São João as the peak of the city’s artistic movements. Also integrating other styles like viola cantoria, coco embolada, and Japãozin remixes.
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The airport renovation together with the newly announced flights is a big achievement. The quadrilha performances receiving tourists, which happen two days a month, could be more frequent during São João.
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From Areia to Pai Mateus, there is enormous tourism potential in the region. Yet it seems hard for tourists to discover these programs. How do we explore the distinct creativity and cleverness of Campina’s people to create a tourism vision?
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Projects like São João Alternativo are a great example of a step forward. Events of other genres bring another audience to experience São João. I highlight the use of the Paulo Gustavo Law for cultural incentives, which could be explored more by aspiring cultural producers.
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Walking and discovering the spaces of Parque do Povo is a rewarding experience. With the same efficiency the team organizes entrance lines, a “one-way / opposite-way” system to order the flow of people in the restaurant area.
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The palhoças are missed. Besides the stage playing pé-de-serra forró, a cozier space to dance, with physical boundaries and special lighting, is more inviting for forrozeiros to join the show.
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Dance is one of the most special elements of Northeastern culture and deserves a project within the São João organization. Including forró teachers in the festival, promoting dance classes on the smaller stages early in the evening, would be a great start.
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Typical corn foods (e.g. pamonha, canjica) could be more easily found inside the event. Maybe with some display that talks about their making and origin.
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A software application unifying useful information about the festival (map, restaurant menus, queue organization, show schedule, support for foreigners), with constant activations throughout the year.
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The festivals in neighboring cities are unmissable, delivering different and complementary experiences. The whole region wins if we can collaborate, exchange experience, and create a joint tourism incentive plan (including with our neighboring state city, Caruaru).
Well then, my beautiful people
Our São João has ended
Unfortunately it has passed
Our nights by the bonfire
The balloons and the flags
Our June gatherings
The most Northeastern party
Leaves longing in its people
And the clocks go again
With their hands counting
So the year may pass soon
For São João to return again
(Recited by Juarez on Podcast Nordestino)
Thanks to Gabriela Trindade and Beatriz Cunha for the editing.
