The Póvoa de Varzim International Music Festival - Costa Verde - Portugal (FIMPV) was created in July 1979 by the local game zone concessionaire SOPETE, SA, on the proposal of the pianist Sequeira Costa dated 18 September 1978 and officially confirmed by the company's management on November 14, 1978.

The founding of the FIMPV obeyed four core objectives that were to continue throughout history: presentation of internationally renowned performers and the most relevant Portuguese musicians; launching of young Portuguese interpreters, still unknown to the general public; valorization of the region's architectural monuments as concert spaces; and promotion of the region in Portugal and abroad. Underlying these objectives has been the constant concern for the dissemination of masterpieces of great European music of all times and support for contemporary creation.

The Ministry of Culture / State Secretariat for Culture has provided structural support since 1997. Some national and regional companies also contribute financially under the Patronage Act, albeit on a residual basis. The successor company of SOPETE, now Varzim Sol, SA, concessionaire of the gambling zone of Póvoa de Varzim, abandoned the partnership in early 2006. The FIMPV benefits from the collaboration established with some of the most beautiful religious temples in the region, such as concert spaces, namely the Matriz, Lapa, S. José de Ribamar and Misericórdia Churches (Póvoa de Varzim) and the Romanesque Church of S. Pedro de Rates.

Although located in Póvoa de Varzim, in the first editions its direct influence was felt throughout the North of the country (namely Braga, Viana do Castelo, Porto, Vila do Conde, Ponte de Lima, Amares, Barcelos, Caminha, Valença, Guimarães, Vila Nova de Famalicão and Vila Real), the FIMPV contributed decisively to arouse curiosity and to form an own and renewed public of editing for edition, in an admirable effort of cultural decentralization pioneering at the time.

Throughout its 40 years of existence, the FIMPV has promoted renowned national and foreign artists, revealing young Portuguese talent through partnerships with the RDP Young Musicians Award and the Estoril Music Festival.