Lisbon Events Calendar

January

1 January, New Year's Day, a Thursday in 2026: the state monuments are closed and the city sleeps after the Terreiro do Paço fireworks. The Wonderland Lisboa Christmas market in Parque Eduardo VII ran its tenth edition from 28 November 2025 to 4 January 2026; the 2026–27 dates were not published when we checked.

February

Carnival Tuesday fell on 17 February 2026. It is not a public holiday in law — employers may grant it — and Lisbon's version is a set of neighbourhood blocos over the weekend before rather than a city parade; the monuments stay open. The street-alcohol rule came into force on 14 February 2026 — the nightlife page has it.

March

No fixed event. São Jorge Castle switches to summer hours, 09:00–21:00, on 1 March; the Lisboa Card's 2026–27 price sheet starts on 1 April.

April

Good Friday, 3 April, and Easter Sunday, 5 April, are holidays and the state monuments close on Easter Sunday. 25 April, Freedom Day, the anniversary of the 1974 revolution, is a Saturday in 2026 and a national holiday.

May

1 May, a Friday, is a holiday and a closed day at the state monuments. The 96th Feira do Livro de Lisboa opens in Parque Eduardo VII on 27 May and runs to 14 June, 12:00–22:00 Monday to Thursday, 12:00–23:00 Fridays and holiday eves, 10:00–23:00 Saturdays, 10:00–22:00 Sundays and holidays, on the fair's own site. The Festas de Lisboa open on 29 May at 21:00 with the first marchas parade at MEO Arena, and the Arraial da Vila Berta in Graça opens on 31 May.

June

The month. Corpus Christi, 4 June, a Thursday, and Portugal Day, 10 June, a Wednesday, are national holidays. The Festas de Lisboa run to 28 June: the Corrida de Santo António in Belém on 7 June at 08:30; the Santo António weddings on 12 June at the Paços do Concelho, the Sé and the Estufa Fria; the marchas populares down Avenida da Liberdade on 12 June at 21:00, free, 25 groups; the procession of Santo António from the Igreja de Santo António through Alfama on 13 June, the municipal holiday, a Saturday; the Dia da Marinha do Tejo at Cais das Colunas on 20 June at 10:00; and the closing concert with fireworks in the Jardins da Torre de Belém on 26 June at 21:30.

Rock in Rio Lisboa takes Parque Tejo on 20, 21, 27 and 28 June, gates 13:00. Santo António in detail and Rock in Rio follow.

July

NOS Alive at the Passeio Marítimo de Algés on 8, 9 and 10 July, on the festival's own site — the Cascais-line trains from Cais do Sodré are the way there and are full after midnight. The Arraial da Mouraria cinema nights run into July on the festas programme. Pastéis de Belém extends to 22:00 from July.

August

15 August, the Assumption, is a Saturday in 2026 and a national holiday. Jazz em Agosto, the Gulbenkian's open-air jazz festival in its garden amphitheatre, was reported to run from 31 July to 9 August 2026 with fourteen concerts; gulbenkian.pt returned an access error to our reader, so the dates are as reported by the city's cultural agenda, not confirmed on the foundation's page.

September

No fixed city event; the schools go back in the third week and, in our reading, the summer crowd goes with them. The Santa Casa da Misericórdia's and the parishes' small festas run through the month in the neighbourhoods.

October

5 October, Republic Day, a Monday, is a national holiday — a three-day weekend that the monuments stay open for except where the Monday closure applies. The EDP Lisbon Marathon starts on the N6-7 in Carcavelos at 08:00 on Saturday 10 October and finishes in Praça do Comércio; the half marathon starts at 09:20 on Sunday 11 October over the Vasco da Gama bridge; both close the riverside roads and the Belém waterfront for the morning.

November

1 November, All Saints, is a Sunday in 2026. Web Summit runs 9–12 November at MEO Arena and the FIL halls in Parque das Nações; it is the week the city's mid-range rooms are gone, so a November trip goes either side of it. The Wonderland market in Parque Eduardo VII opened on 28 November last season; the 2026 date was not stated.

December

1 December, Restoration of Independence, and 8 December, Immaculate Conception, are both Tuesdays in 2026, which makes a bridge of the Monday. 25 December closes everything. New Year's Eve is a free stage in Terreiro do Paço — the 2025–26 edition opened at 21:30 with DJs, the headline act at 22:30 and fireworks over the river at midnight — with the 2026–27 line-up not yet published.

Lisbon's patron is Saint Anthony, born in the city in 1195, and the night before his feast is the one night of the year the city stops being a city and becomes a hundred street parties. The Festas de Lisboa, run by the city's cultural company EGEAC with the Câmara Municipal, frame it: the 2026 programme runs from 29 May to 28 June with more than forty events, almost all free, from the marchas rehearsal parades at MEO Arena on 29, 30 and 31 May to the closing concert with fireworks in the gardens of the Belém Tower on 26 June at 21:30.

The night itself is 12 June. From about 21:00 the marchas populares — the neighbourhood parade groups, twenty in competition and others alongside, in costume with arches and lanterns — walk down Avenida da Liberdade in front of a seated and standing crowd, free, broadcast on RTP; the 2026 theme is 'Somos Lisboa, Somos Europa', for the fortieth anniversary of Portugal's entry into the European Community. The same day the Casamentos de Santo António, the city's mass weddings — a tradition from 13 June 1958, interrupted in 1974 and revived by the Câmara in 1997, 431 couples since and sixteen more in 2026 — are celebrated at the Paços do Concelho and the Sé. And in every old neighbourhood the arraiais run: Alfama, Graça, Bica, Mouraria and Madragoa strung with paper garlands, a sardine grill on every corner, a manjerico — the pot of basil with a paper carnation and a rhyme — on every stall, and the music until the sun comes up. The Arraial da Vila Berta in Graça, on the programme from 31 May to 13 June, is the one the city itself lists.

The day is 13 June, Santo António's feast and the municipal holiday, a Saturday in 2026. The procession leaves the Igreja de Santo António beside the Sé and winds through Alfama in the afternoon — the visitlisboa page gives trams 12 and 28 and bus 737 for getting there, and the traffic notices for the day, as reported, close the streets around Alfama and the Sé from mid-afternoon into the evening. The city sleeps late that morning and the monuments are open.

The practical version: book the room months ahead; do not book a fado house in Alfama for the 12th, because the arraial's speakers will be under its window; and do not plan a tram-28 ride or a Sé visit for the afternoon of the 13th. Come for the night, and take the Carcavelos train on the day.

Each of the three takes a different part of the city and a different kind of room. The table gives the organiser's own figures; what each does to the rest of a visit follows.

Ticket prices for all three are on the organisers' sites and were not read, so none are printed. The pattern worth knowing: Rock in Rio's four days are two weekends in the same month as Santo António, so a late-June trip meets both; NOS Alive sits in the driest week of the year on the IPMA normals; and Web Summit is the one event that changes the price of a trip that has nothing to do with it.

Three events that add to a trip rather than complicate it. The Feira do Livro de Lisboa is the country's oldest book fair, a run of publishers' pavilions along the paths of Parque Eduardo VII above the Marquês de Pombal roundabout, free to walk, with cafés and readings; the 96th edition runs 27 May to 14 June 2026 on the hours printed above, and it makes a fine warm evening after the museums close. Jazz em Agosto is the Gulbenkian Foundation's festival of the harder end of jazz in its garden's open-air amphitheatre, reported for 31 July to 9 August 2026 with fourteen concerts — the foundation's own page would not load, so the dates are as the city's cultural agenda gives them — and the Gulbenkian page covers the museum and garden it sits in.

The EDP Lisbon Marathon, on the Maratona Clube de Portugal's own site, starts at 08:00 on Saturday 10 October 2026 on the N6-7 in Carcavelos in front of the Nova business school and follows the coast and the river to finish in Praça do Comércio; the Hyundai half marathon starts at 09:20 on Sunday 11 October over the Vasco da Gama bridge. For a visitor who is not running, the two mornings close the Belém waterfront and the riverside avenues, which shifts a Jerónimos plan to the afternoon; for one who is, the Carcavelos start is on the beach train.

The first thing the table says is that 2026 is a poor year for long weekends — 25 April, 15 August and 1 November all fall on a weekend — and a good one for visitors, because a holiday on a Saturday closes nothing extra.

Two cautions. São Jorge Castle prints that it closes five days a year without listing them on the page we read; the pattern is the four MMP closed days plus one, and the castle page will carry the list when the site names it. And a holiday is a resident free day at the state monuments — since 1 August 2024 the free Sundays and holidays are for residents in Portugal only — so a holiday is a busier paid day for a visitor, not a cheaper one.

Transport runs on the Sunday timetable on the statutory holidays; the metro's 06:30–01:00 hours hold.

Because they belong on the same calendar: the state museums and monuments have no free day for visitors since 1 August 2024, and no first-Sunday rule; children up to 12 are free every day. The Museu da Água's aqueduct and reservoir are free on the first Sunday of the month. The Padrão dos Descobrimentos is free for Lisbon residents on Sundays and holidays until 14:00, residents only.

The late openings are seasonal rather than dated: the castle to 21:00 from March to October, Pastéis de Belém to 22:00 from July to September, the Time Out Market to 02:00 Thursday to Saturday all year. The closures with no end date are the ones to check before any trip: the Glória, Bica and Lavra funiculars and the Santa Justa lift since 3 September 2025, and the Museu Nacional do Azulejo since 1 November 2025, none with a reopening date on the official page on 29 August 2026 — the funiculars page and the tile museum page will change when they do.

The Belém Tower is the reverse case: closed for works, reopened on 27 May 2026 on timed slots, and now the monument whose slot sells out around any of the June dates above — the ticket page has the mechanics.