The best things to do in Cascais in August

Rua do Fado – A Festa do Fado em Cascais is the name of the free initiative bringing concerts and fado bohemia into the public space. Every Sunday at 7pm until September, except during Festas do Mar, the town’s squares and narrow streets become natural stages for established voices and new talent, with highlights including performances by Miguel Capucho and Maura Airez on 2 August, and Hélder Moutinho and Célia Leira on 16 August.

Fundação D. Luís I and Cascais City Council present O Último Carnaval da Coreia, an exhibition of photographs by Bruno Figueroa, a diplomat and current Ambassador of Mexico to Portugal. On show in the chapel at Centro Cultural de Cascais from 23 July to 11 October 2026, the exhibition brings together images captured in the Itaewon neighbourhood of Seoul on the eve of the October 2022 tragedy. The photographs preserve moments of celebration, freedom and individual expression among 159 young people who would lose their lives just hours later.

The hotel practically on top of Praia da Poça is hosting Evolution Party Season, a programme running until September to liven up late afternoons and warm nights. The calendar brings together music, food and cocktails, with themed parties such as Sunset Arraial & Tribal on 8 August, turning the space into a social meeting point for guests and the local community.

Casa das Histórias Paula Rego has opened the exhibition Bartolomeu Cid dos Santos: Criar em Liberdade in Cascais. The show celebrates the decades-long friendship between the printmaker and Paula Rego, which began in London in the 1950s. Divided into four sections, it brings together works acquired by Fundação D. Luís I that address the oppression of the Estado Novo, the colonial war and critiques of power through literary and social metaphors. It runs until 18 October, with tickets priced at €5.

The Exemplary Girls was written by the Countess of Ségur in 1858. The children's book by the Russian author—who wrote this and many other adventures about well-born girls who behave terribly—now lends its name to the new exhibition at Casa das Histórias Paula Rego. Curated by Catarina Alfaro, it features the female figure, both in childhood and adulthood, as the protagonist and presents, for instance, the hand-coloured lithographs The Salmon-Coloured Dress and Communion, inspired by poems by Adília Lopes. The exhibition, which is open until the end of January 2027, also includes works from the "Jane Eyre" (2001-2002) and "Pendle Witches" (1996) series, influenced respectively by the work of Charlotte Brontë and Blake Morrison, as well as the six prints of "Female Genital Mutilation", a 2009 series that denounces practices of gender-based violence affecting girls in various parts of the world.

Coinciding with As Meninas Exemplares, Casa das Histórias Paula Rego’s long-term exhibition O Exilado: da criação à conservação is dedicated to the technical study and restoration of a work – a process that usually takes place far from visitors’ eyes. The work in question is the painting-collage O Exilado (Um velho exilado sonhando a sua juventude), from 1962-63, shown for the first time in Portugal and accompanied by images and behind-the-scenes explanations of the research and conservation process. The study revealed hidden collages, compositional changes and layers of materials that help shed new light on the Portuguese artist’s creative process.