This paper examines the 3 European Capital of Culture (ECoC) events that have taken place in Portugal (Lisbon’94, Porto’01, and Guimarães’12). It engages in a deconstructionist reading of programming and promotional representation at the 3 ECoC events in Portugal. In doing so, it attempts to illuminate how, through the active engagement of event tourism, Portugal’s identity is characterized by an uneasy negotiation of the European Union (EU)’s over-arching political goal in promoting a collective European identity with popular consciousness.