The Alive festival was created by the live entertainment company Everything is New in 2007. The name of the festival is taken from the
Pearl Jam song "
Alive". The first edition occurred between 8 and 10 June 2007, under the name
Oeiras Alive!, and had two stages. The headliners were
Pearl Jam,
The Smashing Pumpkins and the
Beastie Boys. In its second edition, the date of the festival was changed to the second weekend of July and the name of the festival was changed to include a naming sponsor. Between 2008 and 2010, the festival was named
Optimus Alive!, after the telecommunications company
Optimus. A third stage was added in the 2009 edition. The 2009 edition was also the only edition to date to have a day dedicated to
heavy metal music in the main stage, which had
Metallica as the headliner. In 2011, the exclamation mark was dropped from the festival name, and it became "Optimus Alive" until 2014. To mark its 5th anniversary, an extra day was added to the festival, making it a 4-day event in 2011. A new
bandstand stage was added in 2012. In 2014 the naming sponsor company Optimus changed its name to
NOS, and the festival name was changed accordingly to NOS Alive in 2015. A stage dedicated to
stand-up comedy was also added in the 2014 edition. In 2016, a new stage dedicated to
fado music was added. The 2020 edition of NOS Alive was planned to happen between 8 and 11 July 2020, with
Kendrick Lamar,
Taylor Swift,
Billie Eilish and
The Strokes as headliners. On 19 May 2020, the festival was cancelled due to the
Portuguese government's decision to prohibit all large-scale events in the country until 30 September 2020, amid the
COVID-19 pandemic. Following this cancellation, NOS Alive '21 was scheduled to take place between 7 and 10 July 2021, with all tickets bought for 2020 valid for the new dates or refunded by request. In early May 2021, Álvaro Covões, CEO of Everything is New, expressed his doubts regarding the execution of the festival that year due to the continuing
COVID-19 pandemic. The festival was cancelled once again on 20 May 2021, and the tickets remained valid for NOS Alive '22. The festival returned in 2022 with a 4-day format. This edition had a record total attendance of 210,000 people. == Location ==