Faro council, the Faro Motorcycle Club and the police have agreed that any police action at the International Bikers Festival in July will be focused on ‘prevention’ rather than ‘repression,’ according to the mayor today.
Mayor Rogério Bacalhau said this was the main conclusion of a meeting this week which included senior management from the PSP and GNR police forces.
Bacalhau reports that a joint campaign will be launched to advise participants about the safety of people and possessions throughout the festival period.
"All agreed that the central issue is security, on similar lines to the police action last year," said the mayor, noting that "the emphasis now is for prevention and not repression."
The mayor added that the police operations of 2013 and 2014 will be maintained but that officers promise not to pull people over time and time again, as happened last year to the detriment of the feel and mood of the peaceful festival.
"The goal is for prevention and to ensure support for those who travel, but without the stop operations in which people sometimes were pulled over two or three times to be inspected," said Bacalhau.
The mayor of course agrees that if something illegal is spotted then the police will act, and that he wants a zero accident festival with no general inconvenience to visiting bikers, as has happened before due to over-enthusiastic policing.
The festival management threatened last year to move the event to Spain if the police did not back off and allow a less restricted flow of visitors to the event.
A well-informed reader spotted that the headline billing for The Stranglers at the bikers' festival is not for what many may assume will be the original lineup of the 70s/80s group.
Legendary front man Hugh Cornwall no longer is associated with the band, preferring as he does to tour alone.
See also:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/5334-stranglers-at-the-international-faro-bike-festival
