Live music in Mindelo

The city that sings

Mindelo does not have a live-music scene; it has a live-music habit. Any given night you can catch morna, the slow, saudade-drenched style Cesária Évora carried to the world, in a harbour-front bar. A coladeira party spills out of a bar somewhere in town. And in a backyard on Rua de Lisboa, a young band is rehearsing funaná.

How to use this guide

The listings below are live: they come straight from the city's event calendar, not from this page. When a bar posts a gig through the guide, it appears here automatically. What this guide adds is the map of kinds of nights:

• Harbour kiosks: free entrada, touristic morna, best at dusk
• Back-room bars: where local musicians actually play; ask for the "sesão" and stay past midnight
• Festival nights: Baía das Gatas and the New Year stages book the big names; the rest of the year the big names play small rooms

Etiquette, briefly

Clap after songs, not during. Tipping the band is a Cape Verdean tradition (collecta). And if you can't dance coladeira, stand near the bar; the rhythm will find you.