Abruzzo Festa, Sagra and Spettacolo Pirotecnico - Fairs, Feasts and Fireworks !

The year-round fairs, feasts and firework displays are an integral part of the 'real Italy' waiting on your holiday for two.

Abruzzo festa and sagra include:

• religious festivals commemorating important dates in the church calendar, or a town’s Patron Saint. Like the 3-day holiday on October 7, 8, and 9 each year in which Casoli honours Santa Reparata and San Gilberto. (Who was English !)

• re-enactments of a memorable events in a town’s history. On the first Sunday in May,  Lu Lope in Pretoro recreates San Domenico's rescue of a baby snatched by a wolf. In July, Villamagna celebrates Santa Margherita's miraculous intervention that saved the town from Saracen invaders.
  

• celebrations of traditional Abruzzo food and wine - like the famous Sagra di Cinghiale, the wild boar feasting in Pennapiedemonte which goes on for all of August.

• the arrival of successful crops in the autumn. Like late October's Sentieri d'Autonno - 'Autumn Trails' - celebration of new wine, new oil and roast chestnuts in Paglieta.

• and you won't sample a more authentic slice of 'real Italy' on your holiday for two than our annual local festa here in Ascigno. It's a gleeful two-day event on the first Friday and Saturday of September, famous for its truly sensational fireworks.
  

Fireworks
And talking of fireworks, although most Abruzzo feste and sagre end with some sort of display, others take a civic pride in dazzling your eyes and eardrums in a way that's bigger, brighter, louder and longer than anywhere else.

Aside from our own annual display here in Ascigno, there are two firework spectaculars in particular you really shouldn't miss: at Fara San Martino in late August, when a stupendous display is launched from the entrance to the Spirito Sancto gorge just after midnight, lighting-up and echoing round the encircling mountains.

And at Lanciano in mid-September, when an another sense-dazzling treat begins at 4am. Yes. Really. Watch the fireworks and then have pizza for breakfast. Everyone does - and everywhere's open...

Music
You can't have a party without music and although there's a bit of a tendency towards the kind of Europop you thought had bitten the dust around 1975, there are some genuinely terrific bands around that are well worth catching.

We'd make a point of driving distances to watch Melvis, the astonishingly good Elvis tribute band who first wowed us in Casoli in 2008.

And if you like American 40s-style swing, you'll love the Andrea Rovinelli Big Band and their louche, gravel-voiced English vocalist Rick Hutton.

But our absolute runaway favourites are Abruzzo's own Terre del Sud, whose gig in Casoli on a warm September evening in 2009 was one of the best live shows we'd ever seen anywhere.

Terre del Sud  play traditional central and southern Italian dance and folk music. In turn it's haunting, catchy, rivetting, memorable and sexy. See them if you get the chance on your Abruzzo holiday.

Where to Find Abruzzo Sagra and Festa
Check out what's happening in our local area on the Sagra in Italia website. This lists many - but by no means all - of the scheduled events and is constantly updated throughout the year.

Develop the habit of stopping your car to read posters and handbills. Many festa and sagra - particularly local ones - aren't publicised outside their immediate area.

Admission's either completely free; or something like €5 will buy you a a cute little bag to hang round your neck and a wineglass to go in it.

This glass will then spend the evening being generously refilled by local winemakers...