The saint john’s “rusgas” parade in porto, a recreation of the old raids, returned to the streets after two years of interruption

The Rusgas at St. John’s night are related with the rural origins of the communities in the North of Portugal who settled in Porto during the 19th century, where it was customary for groups to travel to parties and pilgrimages to the sound of popular songs accompanied by musical instruments. These populations adapted those tradiion to the urban context, the tradition of arruada or raids consisting of nocturnal singing in the streets to the sound of tambourines and bagpipes. In Porto, on the Saint John’s night, the “Rusgas” where the maximum exponent of informality, when groups of friends, families, young and elders, living in working class neighbourhood and city surroundings, after dinner invaded the streets and roamed to the center of Porto in joyful and noisy pilgrimages and battles of leek, creating an extensive network of informal routes that connected people and parties throughout the city.