If the Queima das Fitas is a farewell, the Latada is a welcome. It marks the start of the academic year, and its central image is the opposite of solemn: first-year students, caloiros, paraded through the city in costumes devised by their senior padrinhos, with tin cans tied to their ankles. The Câmara Municipal’s own description is “um cortejo bastante ruidoso” — a thoroughly noisy procession. That is the point of it.
It ends with the seniors baptising the freshmen in the Mondego. The Latada is also called the Festa das Latas e Imposição de Insígnias, which is the formal half of the same idea: the cans are the joke, the insignia are the initiation.
What happens, in order
Using the 2025 edition, which ran 29 September to 5 October, as the worked example:
- Sarau Académico — 29 September, the opening evening.
- Serenata — at the Largo da Sé Nova, at midnight on 1 October, sung by fado groups in academic dress. The autumn counterpart to the Queima’s serenade at the Old Cathedral, and at a different church.
- Revolta do Grelo — at the Mathematics car park.
- Praça da Canção concerts — 1 to 5 October.
- Cortejo — Sunday 5 October at 14:00. The parade proper, and the day everything closes.
The baptism in the river closes the ritual arc: the freshers go in the Mondego and come out members of the Academia.
Note the calendar quirk. The municipality describes the Latada as an October event, and the 2025 edition actually began on 29 September. It straddles the month boundary, which is why you will find it filed under both.
What it closes
Like its May counterpart, this student party shuts serious heritage.
The University of Coimbra has published 4 October 2026 as a closure date for the Latada — its entire tourist circuit, meaning no Joanina Library, no Royal Palace, no Sala dos Capelos and no Science Museum spaces.
The Santa Cruz monastery closes on the day of the Latada Cortejo, which it lists as a movable date alongside the Queima parade day, Corpus Christi, Army Day on 24 October, Christmas and New Year.
If your trip touches the first week of October, treat the university’s closure list as the first thing you check — not the last. The October guide sets out what else changes in that week, including the switch to winter opening hours on the 1st.
The dates, and an honest gap
The 2026 dates were not published as of 15 September 2026. Our research pass ran two weeks before the likely edition and found nothing from the Associação Académica or the municipality confirming them.
What we do have is firm in one respect: the university itself has named 4 October 2026 as a Latada closure day on its published visitor information. That is an official source telling you the date the doors shut, even in the absence of a full programme.
So the practical position is this. If you are in Coimbra in the last week of September or the first week of October 2026, assume the festival is happening around you, assume 4 October closes the university circuit, and check the organisers for everything else. We would rather publish the gap than a guess.
Tickets for the Praça da Canção concerts have been sold through BOL and FNAC in past editions, which is the place to start looking once a programme appears.
How to watch it as a visitor
The Latada is more approachable than the Queima and less crowded, because it is a local rite rather than a destination festival. Two places matter.
The Largo da Sé Nova for the midnight serenade. The Sé Nova is the former Jesuit college that took a hundred years to build and became the cathedral in 1772 simply because it was bigger than the old one. Standing on that square at midnight listening to Coimbra fado is the best free thing on this page.
The parade route through the city for the Cortejo, on the Sunday afternoon. You do not need a position or a ticket; you need to not be trying to visit a monument at the same time.
One caution for families: this is a loud, alcoholic street party. The family guide suggests giving parade day to the river and the left bank instead.