The Motoclube de Faro, organisers of the annual bikers’ festival, has decided that enough is enough and have slammed the overbearing police presence and its attitude at this year’s gathering.
The Motoclube management requires "a radical change" in the size of the police force attracted by the International Motorcycle Meeting and an end to the repressive control of those participating.
If the policing doesn’t change, there will be no festival next year, simple as that, is the message from the Motoclube.
The club's management has written to the Minister of Internal Affairs, and copied the local Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) and the Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) - the two forces which have come in for some fierce criticism.
In an interview with Sul Informaçao, the President of the Motoclube de Faro, José Amaro, said that if the club was to keep the event going there needs to be a complete and radical change in the attitude and actions of the GNR and PSP, particularly in the way they deal with bikers.
While welcoming a police presence, Amaro disputes the need for a high profile, heavily armed force toting pistols, shotguns and machine guns seeing it as hardly welcoming and unnecessarily confrontational.
The bikers association says that clearly bikers are being persecuted despite their coming from all over Europe to enjoy the Faro festival and despite Amaro having meetings year after year with the local council and police - whatever is agreed never seems to happen.
This year there was a Stop operation by the traffic police focusing on motorcycles, cunningly running over the weekend of the festival. "There are people who were stopped 5 or 6 times. The Spanish coming over for the festival barely get over the Guadiana Bridge before they are stopped," said Amaro.
This year also there was a deliberately high profile police operation on Faro beach coinciding with the festival, with heavily armed police, a spectacle that distresses many visitors.
Sul Informaçao contacted the Commander of Faro GNR who admitted that he had received his copy of the letter, but that he will not make any comment on the contents.
The President of the Motoclube said that the council should stick up more for the bikers with the police which he claims are behaving in a highly discriminatory way and putting off many visitors from ever coming to Portugal again.
The Motoclube reminded the Minister of its socially responsible attitude and gave a long list of the good works and donations that it has afforded local charities when there are surplus funds at the end of the festival.
