News Porto.

Tiago Guedes was presented with the highest civilian distinction in France and was appointed Chevalier of The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters), for his significant contributions to the arts and literature and the exchange of these fields between Portugal and France. The ceremony took place yesterday, at the French Embassy in Portugal, located at the Palácio de Santos, in Lisbon. The Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira attended the ceremony.

The second edition of Porto Design Biennale is themed “Alter-Realidades: Desenhar o Presente”, [“Alter-Realities: Drawing the Present”, free translation]. The programme features 49 activities, 9 curators, 11 workshops, 20 online talks and 24 hosting venues in Porto and in Matosinhos, from 2 July to 25 July.

Portugal's first Olympic medal in judo, Nuno Delgado was the guest of honour in a judo class at the Escola Básica da Pasteleira for a very special audience: kindergarten pupils.

Porto City Hall has distributed vouchers worth circa 50 thousand euros thus far, to commercial establishments that have joined the support programme to boost local commercial businesses in the city of Porto. For each 20 euros buying, the customer gets a 2 euro direct discount. Applications can still be submitted until 30th July.

The Prize “Cinco Estrelas Regiões” [“Five stars Region”, free translation] was afforded to the Serralves Foundation, which is described “as a European reference” and “one of the main cultural institutions when it comes to disseminating Contemporary Art, besides being a heritage asset that is classified as national monument”. This is the 4th edition of the competition, and consumers voted in the Serralves Foundation in the category Museums.

Launched as a tribute to culture by Paulo Cunha e Silva, former councillor for Culture at Porto City Hall (deceased in November 2015), with the outlining goal of reaching everyone everywhere in society, in all venues, all across the city, the municipal programme Cultura em Expansão continues, as expected, to transform the city, by expanding values and new perspectives towards life. On 19 May, at 7.30 pm, the Associação Nun’Álvares de Campanhã hosts a concert by JP Simões & Amigos.

The Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, announced this morning that the Government reached an agreement regarding the “methodology” for the railway construction between the Northern Region of Portugal and Galicia. The procedure will follow the “Iberian gauge”, rather than the European one, which, according to Rui Moreira, offers the advantage of enabling complementary trajectories. However, this “old-standing dream” may take as much as 10 years to be accomplished.

The HIV/AIDS Mobile Unit screening actions are organised by the Counselling Centre for the earlier HIV/AIDS diagnosis, and it features monthly free planning regarding HIV/AIDS screening actions, in various locations in Porto. There is no need for previous registration. See here the dates, times and locations for May.

Rally de Portugal, which scores for the WRC programme is back in Porto on 22 May. The Super Special stage will take to the Forte de São João Baptista, in Foz do Douro and today, 10 May, marks the beginning of the preparation of this Super Special.

Applications are open for WOMEX 2021, the World Music Expo, which takes to Porto between 27th and 31st October. This event is one of the most relevant music support and development projects in the global music scene. The event will introduce thousands of music makers and music lovers from over 90 countries, in the Invicta.