The Vasco da Gama Club is inviting the community to attend its family block party celebrating the 170th anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese immigrants to Bermuda.

The evening on Saturday will feature performances by the Portuguese School of Bermuda, the Vasco da Gama Folklore Group, In Motion School of Dance, the Somerset Brigade Band, Vision School of Dance and the Warwick Gombey Troupe.

The Portuguese School and Folklore dancers will sell traditional Portuguese food, such as chouriço sandwiches, pork sandwiches and Portuguese doughnuts, or malasadas.

Entertainment will include laser tag, fun castles, human billiards games and there will also be commemorative T-shirts for sale.

The event will take place on Reid Street between Burnaby and Parliament Streets from 6pm and is part of a host of events centred around the public holiday on November 4.

Paul Franco, the president of Vasco, said the Government had invited his club to organise the block party. He said: “We want all of Bermuda’s residents to come out and enjoy this fun, family evening.

“In our view, the holiday does not belong to any one group or community — it was proclaimed for everyone.

“With this objective in mind, we are aiming to put on a programme that showcases how the Portuguese have integrated into the broader Bermudian community.

“We encourage everyone in Bermuda to come out and celebrate this important milestone; the first time that a diaspora Portuguese community has been recognised anywhere in the world, with its own public holiday.”