This is the night the island does its last Christmas shopping and turns it into a party. The Mercado dos Lavradores stays open through the night selling the meat, fruit and flowers for Christmas dinner, and the streets feeding into it fill with stands pouring poncha and licores and cooking bolo do caco. Groups of singers, the grupos de cantares, take corners with guitars, braguinhas and accordions and keep going until it gets light, and the crowd around them sings rather than watches.
- CostFree, with drinks a couple of euros at the street stands. Take cash in small notes: nobody is queueing behind you while a card machine looks for a signal.
- WhereAround the Mercado dos Lavradores at the bottom of the old town, and in every street running into it.
- Getting thereWalk, and stay somewhere you can walk back to. The streets around the market are shut to cars, taxis cannot reach them late on, and the late buses the city puts on run full.
- Best timeEarly evening to see the market itself while you can still get through the door. The singing builds after ten and the streets stay full until first light.
- With childrenFamilies are out in the early part of the evening and it is their night too. Later it is a dense adult crowd holding drinks, with no room for a pushchair.
- If it rainsNobody goes home. The market hall is roofed, the streets are not, and the singing carries on under umbrellas.
It is a local night that visitors are welcome at rather than an event staged for them, and it is the densest crowd Funchal has all year. Moving a hundred metres through the streets by the market takes a long time and shoving is not how it is done, so pick a corner with a singing group on it and stay there. The poncha comes in a plastic cup, is made in front of you and is stronger than it tastes. Two or three hours from about ten is the honest version of the night for most people, and the ones who stay to the end are the ones who walked.
What people ask us about Noite do Mercado
What time should I arrive?
Early in the evening if you want to see the market working, because the aisles fill and then stop moving. Later, from about ten, if you have come for the singing and the street crowd, which is what most people mean by this night.
What do people drink?
Poncha, mixed in front of you from aguardente, honey and lemon, and licores by the small cup. It is served in plastic on the street, it goes down like a soft drink and it is not one.
Is it safe?
Yes. It is a family night that turns into a late one and the crowd is good natured. It is also the tightest crowd of the year in the city, so keep your phone somewhere you can feel it and agree where to meet if you are separated, because you will be.
Can I get home afterwards?
Not easily by car or taxi. Book a stay in the old town or the centre and walk, which is the single thing that turns this night from an ordeal into an easy one.
