News Porto.

This year, the traditional Christmas tree will not be displayed in front of Porto City Hall, as it could lead to crowd gatherings. Amid the ongoing Covid-19, the usual festive programme is halted, namely ice rinks, concerts in the Avenue and in other street stages scattered all over town, as well as street theatre and travelling street performances. The New Year’s Eve fireworks, which usually brings together thousands of people to downtown Porto is cancelled as well.

ScaleUp Porto promotes another edition of the Doing Business initiative, in partnership with Indie X, the major event of the Indie videogames in Portugal. The goal is to promote businesses in this growing industry.

While physical attendance is yet to be fully possible, many arts and cultural equipment turn to other platforms to connect with their audiences. As such, the Water Pavilion, in Porto, offers digital services, namely the educational project H2Online. This project ensures that social and social distancing is in place while providing several laboratory activities that are streamed via the Microsoft Teams platform.

City clubs and associations are exempt from paying to use municipal sports equipment. This measure is in place until the year ends and it will be reassessed according to the pandemic. It includes 25 clubs in the city and a total of 11 sports categories, in 12 equipment within the municipal sports network.

This "civic spot", Porto ranks first in Monocle's second annual Small Cities Index and the city is profiled as featuring the perfect "urban life" as it offers a number of opportunities business, cultural, and nature wise.

This year's edition of Porto/Post/Doc features both online and face-to face programmes. The festival is themed 'A Cidade do Depois' ["The After City", free translation] and it runs between 20 and 29 November. Owing to the ongoing pandemic, the programme is to be presented in a double format: on site and online, at the Rivoli - Porto Municipal Theatre, at Passos Manuel and at Porto Planetarium. The online format provides a wide selection of Video on Demand (VoD) films.

This season, Porto Municipal Theatre also takes to the digital stages, and much so due to the lower seat availability as regards shows, amid the ongoing pandemic. The internet will be the perfect ally to follow and appreciate some of the shows by TMP. This weekend, the performance by Gonçalo Amorim & Paulo Furtado/Teatro Experimental do Porto (TEP), ESTRO / WATTS - Poesia da idade do rock will be streamed online on 8th November, at 5pm.

Porto Municipal Gallery features two exhibitions that are access free: "Prémio Paulo Cunha e Silva -- 2.nd edition" and "Waves and Whirlpools". Operating hours are from Tuesday to Sunday, between 10am and 6pm.

On 6th November 1919 Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was born in Porto. Her family affectionately nicknamed her "Xixa". She loved books, histories and poems and maybe that is why she became one of the greatest Portuguese writers of all time.

Ordem Moral, a film based on real facts, tells the story of a woman that stood against an epoch good morals and escaped to live with the love of her life. In 1918, Maria Adelaide Coelho da Cunha, Portuguese socialite and heiress of Eduardo Coelho, founder of the major daily newspaper Diário de Notícias, abandons the luxury life she was living and decides to join her lover, a family chauffer, and 26 years younger than her.