Qualla: Festa da Uva

Festa da Uva: Introduction

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. For eleven years, the grapes stayed quiet. From 1938 to 1949, Caxias do Sul did not hold its harvest festival, because the world had made the city's heritage dangerous. Italy had become an enemy of the Allies, and an event built to celebrate Italian roots fell silent under wartime suspicion and economic hardship. When the Festa da Uva returned, it came back as more than a fair. It came back as a declaration: this is who we are, grapes and wine and all.

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Festa da Uva: A Harvest in February

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The festival follows the rhythm of the Southern Hemisphere, where the grape harvest falls in February and March rather than the autumn of Europe. It began in 1931, when Colonel Miguel Muratore, then mayor of Caxias do Sul, threw his support behind organizers who wanted a fair for...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Festa da Uva: Queens of the Vine

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Júlio Calegari, Public domain. From early on, the festival crowned its own royalty. A queen was first chosen in 1933, and the tradition holds today: a Rainha and two Princesas are selected to reign over the celebration. The pageant became one of the festival's signatures, a way of giving the harvest a human fa...

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Image: Júlio Calegari | Public domain

Festa da Uva: Reclaiming a Heritage

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The festival was always more than a market for fruit. When the 50th anniversary of Italian immigration was marked in 1925, the people of Caxias used such occasions to claim their place in the history of Rio Grande do Sul, a history long dominated by Portuguese-descended landowner...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Festa da Uva: The Pavilions Today

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricardo André Frantz (User:Tetraktys), CC BY-SA 3.0. Now held every even-numbered year, the Festa da Uva fills the Caxias do Sul pavilions with attractions drawn mainly from South America but reaching out to the wider world. The festival has grown into one of the largest of its kind in the country, drawing close to a million visito...

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Image: Ricardo André Frantz (User:Tetraktys) | CC BY-SA 3.0