Changes to Porto’s ″Queimódromo″ following complaints on the first night of Queima

The Porto Academic Federation announced changes to the entry rules and payment methods at the “Queimódromo”, in Parque da Cidade, where the 2023 Noites da Queima das Fitas take place, after several people complained about the organization.

The Noites da Queima das Fitas started early on Sunday, with Ornatos Violeta as the headliners for the first day. Today, complaints were shared on social media, namely on the official page of the Associação Académica do Porto (FAP), on Facebook, from those who were in Parque da Cidade at dawn. Complaints are motivated, especially with the moment of entry into the enclosure and the functioning of the payment system.

One person, for example, reports having arrived at the venue at the opening time of the doors, around midnight, but that he was unable to enter “because of an endless queue to exchange the ticket for a wristband and another to enter”, ending up give up by 2.30 pm. Another share that spent “more than two hours in line to get in”, complaining about the time lost “to exchange tickets for wristbands when in fact the wristbands don’t even work”.

In a statement, released at 9 pm on Sunday, the FAP states that it has detected and confirmed “constraints underlying the course of the event, related to access to the enclosure and the use of the ‘cashless’ system [sem recurso a dinheiro ou cartão, e neste caso através de uma pulseira]”.

According to the FAP, a series of measures were “promptly” taken, “in order to provide the best experience to users of the 2023 Queima das Fitas do Porto”.

In order to improve the conditions for entering the venue, the FAP proceeded to “reinforce the signage and clearly identify the entrance doors”, to “alter the location of door 2, with this access now being made next to the Main Stage”, and to the “creation of corridors dedicated to each door, allowing fluid access to the enclosure and in complete articulation with the security forces”.

“In addition to the entry with a wristband, entry with a physical or digital ticket will be allowed, and the wristband can be picked up at the charging stations already inside the enclosure”, says the FAP, stressing that, “in this way, there will be no ticket exchange by bracelet”.

Since entry to the venue can now be done without a wristband, once inside “payments will take place in a hybrid way: through ‘cashless’ and normal means of payment (cash and others)”.

FAP calls for “the understanding of these measures on the part of all the people who have acquired and will acquire tickets for the Queima das Fitas do Porto 2023, an event in constant transformation, in order to better provide an experience that is unique and memorable for the students of the Academy of Porto”.

The lineup for Noites da Queima das Fitas 2023 includes more than 50 music, dance, comedy and art artists, who are distributed, for the first time, on three stages: Stage Academy (the main stage), Stage Secondary, with theme nights, and Palco Cultura, with greater emphasis on “stand-up comedy”.

In 2022, according to the organization, Queima das Fitas welcomed more than 300 thousand people in the eight nights of the party, three of which were sold out.

Queima das Fitas also includes the traditional academic parade, which takes place on Tuesday and will cause traffic restrictions in the city centre, between 10 am and 10 pm.

The parade starts at 2 pm, with the concentration of thousands of university students scheduled for Praça da República, and ends in front of the Porto City Council building, at the top of Avenida dos Aliados.