Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Eu quero reservar bilhetes para o festival de música em junho. - I want to reserve tickets for the music festival in June.

Both are correct. Adding eu can give a bit more emphasis, like I want (as opposed to someone else), but in neutral speech it’s often dropped: Quero reservar bilhetes para o festival…

Is quero (present tense) polite enough, or should I say something else when speaking to strangers?

Quero is grammatically correct and not rude, but in European Portuguese people often soften requests, especially with strangers (e.g. at a ticket office).

More polite options:

Gostava de reservar bilhetes para o festival…
Literally I would like to reserve tickets for the festival…. Very common and polite.
Queria reservar bilhetes para o festival…
Literally I wanted to reserve tickets…; used like a polite request.

So in a real situation you’re more likely to hear or say:

Gostava de reservar bilhetes para o festival de música em junho.
Queria reservar bilhetes para o festival de música em junho.

Quero reservar… is fine, just a bit more direct/neutral.

What’s the difference between reservar bilhetes and comprar bilhetes?

Reservar bilhetes = to reserve / book tickets (usually they’re held in your name, and you might pay later or on collection).
Comprar bilhetes = to buy tickets (you actually pay for them).

Depending on the context, reservar might imply:

holding seats/tickets for a while, or
booking them (possibly with payment) as part of a system that uses the verb reservar (for example, online booking forms).

If you are sure you are paying immediately, comprar bilhetes is the most straightforward:

Quero comprar bilhetes para o festival de música em junho.
I want to buy tickets for the music festival in June.

Why is it bilhetes and not ingressos or entradas?

This is a European Portuguese (Portugal) vs Brazilian Portuguese difference:

In Portugal, the normal everyday word for tickets (transport, cinema, concerts, festivals…) is bilhetes.
In Brazil, the common word is ingressos (for events) and passagem (for travel tickets).

Entradas can also mean tickets in both varieties, but it’s less common in everyday speech for something like a concert or festival; it often appears in more formal or written contexts (e.g. “preço das entradas”).

So in Portugal you’d naturally say:

Quero reservar bilhetes para o festival. ✅
Using ingressos in Portugal sounds clearly Brazilian.

Do I have to use the plural bilhetes here? What if I only want one ticket?

No, you don’t have to use the plural. You can say:

Quero reservar um bilhete para o festival de música em junho.
I want to reserve a ticket for the music festival in June.

Use:

um bilhete = one ticket
bilhetes (without a number) = some tickets, or it leaves the exact number open.

If you want to be specific:

Quero reservar dois bilhetes… – two tickets
Quero reservar três bilhetes… – three tickets, etc.

Why is it para o festival and not para festival or ao festival?

In Portuguese you normally need a definite article before concrete singular nouns like this:

o festival = the festival
um festival = a (or one) festival

So:

para o festival = for the festival (a specific one)
para um festival = for a festival (not specific)

Ao festival would be a contraction of a + o (to the festival), but with reservar bilhetes you’re reserving tickets for the festival, not to the festival, so para is the natural choice:

reservar bilhetes para o festival ✅
reservar bilhetes ao festival ❌ (not idiomatic here)

Why do we say festival de música instead of something like festival musical?

Portuguese often uses “Noun + de + Noun” to show what something is about or made of, instead of an adjective:

festival de música = festival of music → music festival
filme de terror = film of horror → horror movie
loja de roupa = clothes shop

You can say festival musical, but:

festival de música is the usual and most natural way to say music festival.
festival musical can sound a bit more literary, descriptive, or technical, depending on context.

So in everyday speech, festival de música is what you want.

Why is it em junho and not no junho?

With months, Portuguese normally uses em + month without an article:

em janeiro, em fevereiro, em junho, etc.
= in January, in February, in June

So:

em junho ✅ is the standard way to say in June.
no junho ❌ is not used in this time-expression sense.

You might see no mês de junho:

no mês de junho = in the month of June
but that includes mês (month), not just junho on its own.

Could I say em junho, quero reservar bilhetes…? Is that word order OK?

Yes. In Portuguese, time expressions like em junho can go at the:

beginning:
Em junho, quero reservar bilhetes para o festival de música.
or end:
Quero reservar bilhetes para o festival de música em junho.

Both are correct. Putting em junho at the beginning can slightly emphasize the time (In June, I want to…), but both word orders are natural.

Why is it de música and not da música?

de música = of music (music in general)
da música = contraction of de + a música = of the music (a specific music)

Here we’re talking about a music festival in a general sense, not a festival of some specific, previously mentioned music.

So:

festival de música = a festival whose theme is music (in general) ✅
festival da música would sound like festival of the (particular) music ❌ in this context.

You do use do/da when you have a noun that usually takes a definite article and you’re being specific, for example:

festival da canção = song festival (a specific, known event in Portugal)
festival do cinema francês = festival of French cinema (a particular thing).

How do you pronounce bilhetes and junho in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation:

bilhetes: [bee-LYE-tesh]
- bi- like bee
- -lh- is a palatal sound, roughly like the lli in English million
- final -es sounds like -esh
junho: [ZHOO-nyoo]
- j = soft zh sound (like the s in measure)
- u = like oo in food
- nh = ny sound, like the ni in onion (British English), or Spanish ñ
- final -o in unstressed position is quite reduced, closer to a weak uh / oo sound.

So roughly: bilhetes → bee-LYE-tesh, junho → ZHOO-nyoo (with a reduced final vowel).

Can I say para reservar bilhetes, eu quero… or does the infinitive go after quero?

In this sentence, quero is a modal-like verb and the infinitive (reservar) normally comes directly after it:

Eu quero reservar bilhetes… ✅
Quero reservar bilhetes… ✅

If you say:

Para reservar bilhetes, eu quero…

this becomes a different structure: In order to reserve tickets, I want… It sounds unnatural unless you continue with something else (e.g. I want to check the dates first). For the simple meaning I want to reserve tickets, keep quero + reservar together.

Is this specifically European Portuguese, or would Brazilians say the same sentence?

A Brazilian will fully understand this sentence, but there are small differences in natural word choice:

Portugal:
Eu quero reservar bilhetes para o festival de música em junho.
Brazil (more typical):
Eu quero reservar ingressos para o festival de música em junho.
or just
Eu quero comprar ingressos… (if you’re paying now)

Key European feature here: bilhetes for tickets. The grammar and structure are fine in both varieties, but bilhetes sounds especially natural in Portugal.