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How I Got Caught Up in the Middle of the Hammerin' Festival

At the height of my Porto urban exploration, almost suddenly: I've found myself in the middle of the strangest festival I ever attended.
The São João do Porto Festival draws hundreds of thousands to the street in a crazy frenzy of soft head-hammering.
A massive party with fireworks, street dancing and music playing...
...just that punching heads with soft hammers is the main preoccupation.

It's held on June 23rd every year and literally the entire city of Porto gathers on the streets.

Flying lanterns lit were glowing in the sky, the whistles of the soft hammers were heard all around me...

Guitar music playing on the balconies, wild dancing in the middle of the streets and lot of beer drinking.

Around midnight, fireworks were detonated along the Douro River bank.
An impressive light show - this one too, has surpassed all of my previous experiences of this kind.

Never before have I attended such a wild festival, yet I've been to plenty!

The World doesn't know enough of Porto, but this city really knows how to party!

Yet, the São João do Porto Festival is almost completely unknown outside of Porto.

What's funny is that these little toy hammers emit a short whistle-like sound whenever people punch each other with them.

I must have been punched 60-70 times during that night.

It's important to mention that only on June 23rd and the night after are you allowed to hit anyone on the street with the soft hammers.

Attempting to do so outside that day - you'll suffer the consequences.

Many Portuguese live in Portugal. Their number if around 100,000-200,000.

Of course, they added to the festival - Brazilian style partying.

Street dancing, music playing, impressive fireworks, a lot of noise and: the head punching kept on for long long hour after midnight. Even at 4 o'clock - attempting to sleep, I could still hear the partying.

But what do they celebrate?

It's supposed to be religious festival... gone bad, obviously.

The event is held to pay tribute to Saint John the Baptist and it's been very popular since the 19th century, although the event has been held for 600 years, now.

The festival embodies both old pagan and also Christian traditions. But, to me the modern shows and games seemed to be overwhelming.

Some even do fire jumping...

Today, the São João do Porto Festival is the most important festival held in the city.

Besides the toy hammer head-punching, the garlic flower head-punching is also done. I've probably been hit 5-10 times with garlic flowers and 60-70 times with soft hammers.

I partied until I wore my feet down and went to bed at around 4 o'clock.

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