i already wrote about crossing the ocean. this is something else.
this is about what it feels like to stand inside salvador while salvador celebrates itself. the city’s official anniversary is march 29. salvador was founded on march 29, 1549 by tomé de sousa — the first governor-general of colonial brazil. it became the first capital of brazil and, by 1558, the first slave market in the new world. that is the formal history. the more useful truth is that this place carries history in a way you do not just read. you walk through it. you feel it. you argue with it. you let it change your posture.
as a Preta woman, that lands differently. not because the city is simple. not because it is soft. and definitely not because it is some fantasy of automatic belonging. but because there is something about being in salvador during birthday week that makes the layers louder. the african presence. the contradictions. the beauty. the labor. the rhythm. a city celebrating itself while still carrying the weight of everything it has survived. that is not small. and it is not abstract.
what i love is that the celebration is not just stage lights and slogans. this year’s festival da cidade 2026 runs from march 21 to april 5 with free programming across the city. local art, makers, theater, literature, music — and the xiii semana do artesão adaba from march 25-29 at campo grande, dedicated to handcraft and local artistic production. that part matters to me specifically. i do not separate a city’s soul from what its people make with their hands.
on march 29 itself, mercado iaô holds a special anniversary edition in ribeira — more than 150 creative businesses across fashion, crafts, design, food, and self-care, plus music and community. if you want to understand a place, watch what it builds, not just what it sells.
if you are reading this and something in you is already leaning toward bahia, pay attention to that. not everybody is only meant to visit a place. some people are meant to let it confront them.
that is the conversation i am building at fool around and find out — for people who want something more honest than travel fantasy. if you’re ready to think beyond tourism, that’s where we go deeper.
- read the bloodline: six hundred years. documented.
- thinking about the move? foolaroundandfindout.com
- book a session: one session. no tools. no theater.