Campina Grande is the second most populous Brazilian city in the State of Paraíba after João Pessoa, the capital.

Campina Grande also has a large cultural agenda, including the world's largest Saint John's Festival (called O Maior São João do Mundo), which takes place during the entire month of June.

The founding of Campina Grande is credited to Captain Teodósio de Oliveira Ledo who led a group of Ariús Indians to settle the land and begin farming on December 1, 1697.

However, some historians do not agree with this version and suggest that the place was already a settlement and named Campina Grande when Teodósio arrived with the Ariús.

This position is certainly supported by the fact that Campina Grande is in a critical geographic location for people travelling between the highlands and the coast.

The political actions of Teodósio in mentioning Campina Grande to the king of Portugal in May 1699 went a long way to establishing the location as place of importance.

Campina Grande began as a small village situated in front of an old lake called Açude Velho.

These people were known as tropeiros because they were traveling merchants who traded and sold goods such as meat, cotton clothes and corn flour among the cities and villages they passed by.

Campina Grande became the village (Vila Nova da Rainha) that they rested in as they were coming from the coast to the west, and vice versa.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Campina Grande was called "The Brazilian Liverpool" because of the numerous cotton plantations and factories.

Today, the city has added to its old and rich traditions by becoming an oasis of high technologies in the middle of northeastern Brazil.

The town's development was spurred on by the growth of the regional cotton industry which preferred to ship its product through Campina Grande.

Today, Campina Grande is a point of reference when it comes software development and computer science industries.

In 2003, it was mentioned again as the “Brazilian Silicon Valley," The reason for this success is mostly due to technological research performed by the Federal University of Campina Grande.

Since 1967, when the university obtained support to buy its first computer for US$500,000, the city has developed a tradition of technological excellence that is recognized around the world.

Other events in the city: Sport and recreation structures in Campina Grande include: Local teams include: According to 1996 statistics from the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, the Gross Internal Product was estimated at R$591.93 million: 3.3% came through agricultural and livestock based activities, 19.8% came through industry, and 76.9% was the result of the commerce and service sectors.

By 2002 the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimated that the Gross Internal Product to have grown to R$1.600 billion and the yield per capita to R$4,387.00.