Now in its 35th year, the Fatacil show is to go ahead this August in the municipal park with the council claiming that a re-vamp will create ‘the best fair ever.’
Despite the unfavourable current economic climate, organiser Fatasul is positive Fatacil will be a success and says that 80% of the stands already have been booked.
"This year we plan to re-launch the image and the importance of this event which is the largest general trade fair in the south, so we'll make some changes and give a new look to the event with the goal of making this the best Fatacil ever," said Lagoa councillor, Luis Incarnaçao, who also is the president of organiser, Fatasul.
Incarnaçao admitted the budget for this year is lower than in recent years, but said the fair will be of high quality and will take more money than in previous years.
It needs to, as in November 2013, Lagoa Mayor Francisco Martins said the organising company Fatasul was to undergo a full audit covering the past three years in an attempt to bring some clarity to the €700,000 accumulated debt and to look at sensible ways forward.
At that time, Martins said that Fatacil had "lost its influence regionally and nationally; south of the Tagus it was once the largest event of its type," and he acknowledged that the loss of goodwill from exhibitors and the public related to the financial problems surrounding the fair organisers Fatasul, wholly owned by the council.
The Mayor cast doubt on the organisational set-up for the fair where responsibility is divided between Lagoa council and, for reasons lost in the mists of time, the council’s social services department.
Whatever the audit results may hav shown, the council is determined to push ahead with the show using the same organisational structure that has managed to accumulate a €700,000 loss in recent years.
See also, from Nov 2013: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/512-lagoa-s-loss-making-fatacil-to-undergo-a-full-investigation
