During the approximately 30 days that precede the 20th of September - the anniversary of the Farroupilha Revolution - the gauchos gather daily to reaffirm the feeling of pride in the habits, customs and traditions of their people and to prepare for the celebration of the date.

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The Maurício Sirotski Sobrinho Park, in downtown Porto Alegre, is the center of this event. It is also the place where part of the population is camped and where hundreds of pickets are set up.

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​ In war, picket is the name given to the place where the troops gather to provide services eventually. And it's exactly like that in the Park: there's always a troop available with lots of music, lots of dancing and, of course, lots of barbecue to wait for the friends who will come to participate in the Festival.

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Many of these pickets have the name of “querência”, which, in Rio Grande do Sul, is the name of the place where cattle are raised or the place where people were born. It designates a “dear”, special place where you want to go back because it is where your affections and your history are... and that is the essence of the pickets and the celebration.

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At dawn on the 20th, the pride of being a gaucho is crowned with a great parade that takes over the city: members of all pickets, side by side with representatives of all police forces, walk together through the grandeur of Rio Grande do Sul. Knights and ladies (prendas), dressed in the typical clothes of the time (1835-1845), parade through the downtown streets. There are horses everywhere. The metropolis of Porto Alegre is once again, for a day, a 19th century countryside.