Blumenau

With its typical houses in the timbered style, based on wood and brick without any nails and dating back to the German colonization, Blumenau, in Santa Catarina, was known until the middle of the 1980s as a centre for textiles and the production of crystal. Since then its name has become synonymous with festivals: after the city was destroyed by flooding in 1983, the local government decided to organize an event to raise funds to rebuild it. Thus the first Oktoberfest was born, a beer festival that has become a city tradition, attracting a million people during its seventeen days.

Held in October, the Oktoberfest is based on the festival that takes place in Munich, Germany. There is a different programme each day to keep everyone amused, with performances by typical bands and folk dancers as well as plenty of beer being available in the city's main streets.

Near Blumenau is the little town of Pomerode where 90% of the 20,000 inhabitants speak German. The children there learn Portuguese only at school. There are processions just like in German cities with floats decorated with flowers. The Pomerode Festival takes place in January when the sound of accordion music fills the town and there is typical German food to try, with sauerkraut or stuffed duck with red cabbage.

The most important textile company in the Itajaí Valley is in Blumenau - Hering Têxtil - number one in Brazil and third in the world for knitwear. The textile industry in the Itajaí Valley exports a total of US$ 400 million each year.