BARI (BA)
BREAD FESTIVAL IN PIAZZA
Last week of October
The festival of bread in Bari is a festival of great cultural and food interest.
In the display cases of the exhibition are exhibited sculptures of bread, bundles of spikes, griselle, focaccia, and taralli and other baked goods, the result of the work of masters of the White Art of Bari and the province.
BARI-PALESE MACCHIE (BA)
SAGRA DEL FALÒ MAESTRO
March 19
Blessed bread, onion calzone, chickpeas, broad beans and good wine around the “Falò Maestro” of purification to renew the rites of the countryside, related to the resurrection of the plants, the birth of calves and lambs, after the frost of winter and that the tradition falls on March 19, the day dedicated to St. Joseph.
ACQUAVIVA (BA)
SAGRA OF THE ONION CALZONE
October 16-17
This festival was born when two townspeople talking to each other, they realized that many countries had their own festival, and proposed that even in Acquaviva if he dedicated one to his famous red onion and especially to his calzone.
ACQUAVIVA (BA)
ONION FEAST
2 October weekends
The sagra of calzone with onion, organized a few years ago, now seems to have started well, the onions are large, weighing even two kilos each, crushed or rounded, red or rosé and fragrant ideal to be eaten raw or cooked, used in many different recipes.
ADELFIA (BA)
GRAPE FESTIVAL
2nd-3rd week of August
The festival has been held for over twenty years. The appointment is in Piazza Municipio where the best of the table grapes grown in the area is displayed.
The grapes are grown in a tent and exported to the main Italian and European markets.
ALBEROBELLO (BA)
LEGUME FESTIVAL
October 21st
The first edition was held in October 2000 in Largo Martellotta, where under a large gazebo, fans of legumes, such as beans, chickpeas, cicerchie, lentils, and beans, found warm soups.
You can taste all sovereign dishes because seasoned with raw or holy oil, that is with chili proposed in the festival in twenty different qualities; white and red wine, oil and bread, with indisputable and inimitable qualities.
BISCEGLIE (BA)
SAGRA DE LE STRASCENATE
1st week of August
The festival has been held for five years, and always with increasing success. The strascenate, orecchiette made by hand, are cooked, seasoned with fresh tomato sauce and basil and flavored with the marzotica ricotta and served in the park of mercy.
CASSANO (BA)
SAGRA DELLA FOCACCIA
August 16th-17th
It is a fairly recent festival that enhances the ancient origin of focaccia in Puglia; at least forty types are known, each with a different name, even if the basic ingredients are common.
CASSANO (BA)
FESTIVAL OF BEER
18 August 5 September
The festival has been held since 1990 and is considered the most important in the south, and among the first in Italy for durability and quality.
It’s sparkling, fresh, it stimulates conversation, it ties well with many foods, especially with pizza. At the party of Cassano it is proposed with the inevitable sandwiches with sausage and sauerkraut, but also with meat in the stove and bruschetta.
CASTELLANA GROTTE (BA)
CHICKEN SAGRA
7-8 September
The festival has exceeded 40 editions, and is one of the few in Puglia also connected to a religious festival, in fact on the same days, large demonstrations are held in popular devotion to Maria SS del Caroseno.
The chicken festival sees a large audience participation, just think that there are about ten thousand half-chicken portions used!
The butchers involved in the preparation are fifteen and cook the birds as usual on the grill.
CEGLIE DEL CAMPO (BA)
SAGRA OF ALMONDS
October 12th
The festival is recent, but the product celebrated, the aminue (almonds) is ancient. It takes place in the main square in front of the church dedicated to Maria SS di Buterrito lit up for a party, with stalls of almonds, focaccia and sweets.
In addition, tools used to process almonds are put on display.
CONVERSANO (BA)
FESTIVAL OF THE CIGLIEGE
Beginning of June
In Conversano there has been an important festival of cherries for some time: an opportunity to market the product and organize popular festivals, with the display of flag-wavers, folk shows, painting exhibitions and sports competitions.
CORATO (BA)
FEAST OF SANTA LUCIA
12-13 December
This festival recalls the customs of the peasants to light large fires, around which people gathered to warm up the longest night of the year.
Then the embers blessed by Saint Lucia were brought into the houses and lit a kind of fire, perennial throughout the winter.
GIOVINAZZO (BA)
GRANDMOTHER’S GRANDE SAGRA
1 week of August
In Giovinazzo they eat slowly and well: the grandmother’s sandwich, or the cugno.
This was the lunch of the bricklayer, the painter, the farmer when they were away from home all day.
The snack of children, traditionally, however, was wet bread and sugar, bread, oil and salt, or just breadcrumbs rubbed with two tomatoes on the wire.
GRAVINA (BA)
CARDONCELLO FESTIVAL
Starting from 30 October
It is, in the intentions of the organizers, to articulate, in different moments, the initiative with the commitment of restaurateurs and agro-tourist operators to present particular menus based on the “king mushroom cardoncello” up to assist and participate in the collection, and even until the time of the exhibition in the square, where usually lots of people come in consideration of the fact that these mushrooms are really of an exceptional goodness.
GRUMO APPULA (BA)
FESTIVAL OF THE MADONNA OF MELLITTO
29-30-31 July
It is one of the most evocative manifestations of popular religiosity in the province of Bari. It is perhaps one of the last festivals with strong rural characteristics just because the Madonna to whom people address prayers and peroration is considered protector of the fields.
The bread, or rather the panelle, are symbols of the three days of celebration in the Mellito forest.
LOCOROTONDO (BA)
SAGRA OF THE GNUMMERED SUFFUCHETE
August 9th
It is a fairly recent festival, but it certainly sinks its roots in the distant past of the peasant world. Even when it was possible to party, meat was not consumed, but the offal was eaten.
MINERVINO MURGE (BA)
SAGRA DELL’AGNELLO
April May
This festival is one of the most beautiful in Puglia, because it is very simple, having retained all the pastoral characteristics of the past.
In the square and in the streets of the old town are set up “stove” to roast the lamb, while in other parts of the country, dairy masters prepare ricotta, pecorino cheeses to be eaten fresh or aged.
On the stalls are set up displays of dairy products and sausages, also in the square plays a group of musicians.
MOLFETTA (BA)
TÒEME SAGRA
Carnival
Sagra of “pasta with crepapelle with tria and chickpeas to pipe with ragù yù yù” in the town hall and all invited by Tòeme, the mask of the carnival of Molfetta. The dishes are prepared by the chefs of the Bari chefs association with songs, dances, confetti and masks.
MONOPOLIES (BA)
FESTIVALS OF MONOPOLIES
Summer
Monopoli is undoubtedly the city that hosts the largest number of festivals in Italy, starting from May until September each year at least twenty folk festivals are held, all related to food and wine.
Favorite scenarios are those of the country districts, where there is still a life lived by the peasants to which the vacationers are added. The list of all the festivals: festival of panzarotti, wedges of the moon (last Sunday of May in the district of Virbo); of the pancake (last Sunday of May, in the parish of Queen Pacis); fried fish (last Sunday in June, at the church of the sacred heart); of free-range chicken (1st Saturday of July in Contrada Cozzana); still panzarotti (26 July in the parish of Sant ‘Anna and last Saturday of July in Contrada Cozzana); of the skewer (first Sunday of August in the district of Santa Lucia); bruschetta and typical sweet (2nd weekend in the district Cristo Re); of madonna della Madia at sea (14th August); typical dishes (the 1st Saturday after mid-August in Contrada Cozzana); of the stuffed sandwich (4th weekend of August, in the Losciale district); of the pancake (last weekend of August, in Contrada Sicario); of orecchiette and pancakes (1st weekend of September, in the Impalata district); della porchetta (2nd Saturday of September, in the Impalata district); still the panzarotto (3rd weekend, in the San Gerardo district); bruschetta and panzarotto (between September and October, always in the gay Contrada Cozzana).
NOCI (BA)
FUNGHI FESTIVAL
1st decade of October
The festival is held in the town square on the occasion of the mushroom market, which is considered one of the oldest in the region. For about 10 days the best of the mushroom crop is exposed on a dozen stalls.
There are also exhibitions and the sale of mushrooms in oil. During the festival, fried cardoncelli are offered.
PALO DEL COLLE (BA)
FIERA OF OLIVE HAMLETS
1ªdecade of June
In Palo del Cole there is an event that animates the historic center of the town, where stalls of artisans, artists, antique dealers and collectors are set up. Also you can taste dishes seasoned with olive oil and washed down with wines.
Putignano (BA)
FRISELLA FESTIVAL
July 25th
For some years it has been the classic summer event to which almost all the local bakeries and the many gourmets who appreciate this biscuit bread, soaked in water and seasoned with oil, tomatoes, oregano and salt, respond. During the festival you can taste the southeastern wine from Bari and dance with excellent music. The Pro Loco also provides guides for visiting the Historic Center.
Putignano (BA)
FUNGHI FESTIVAL
October – November
The festival is always very crowded because it is the only one in Puglia to offer the public the vision and tasting of mushrooms collected from Lazio to Calabria.
In particular, the searchers, divided into ten teams, display mushrooms collected in their jokes throughout the center and south of Italy. Each of them then makes a competition to expose them in the most spectacular way, in special stands.
Rutigliano (BA)
GRAPE OF GRAPE
September 18-19
On the occasion of this festival, shop windows and kiosks are decorated with bunches of grapes by the traders of the Historic Center; no lack of art parades, traditions and lots of folklore and show with flag-wavers.
Moment of particular interest, it covers the competition and the relative awarding of the “giant bunch”.
SAMMICHELE (BA)
ZAMPINA AND BOCCONCINO’S FESTIVAL
25-26 September
The festival of the paw and nibble, which has passed the thirty editions, is very impressive because it takes place in the narrow streets and squares of the Old Town, in the shadow of the castle walls, between roasted fumes, hints of wine and scent of freshly baked bread.
People, in a cheerful assembly, in choral appetites, sit at tables set up outside and here they eat their paws made and cooked at the moment.
SANNICANDRO DI BARI (BA)
FESTIVAL OF OLIVES
7th – 8th October
At this event there are olives in brine, in lime, in water, but above all fried; they also prepare them with hanging tomatoes, oregano and chilli pepper.
In addition, girls in period costume illustrate the rooms of the Castle, the exhibition of rural civilization and objects found during the restoration work.
TERLIZZI (BA)
FESTIVAL OF SWEET OLIVES
October 23rd
“Pasole” and “nolche” are the two main varieties of olives for which the festival is organized, all the more important considering the agricultural vocation of Terlizzi.
That of the olive festival, is the opportunity to taste the specialties of Terlizzese cuisine, in fact are offered dishes based on fried olives, beans and sivoni or chicory, bruschetta all seasoned with local oil.
The event is also show and fun with the majorettes parades, music and dancing in the square with well-known singers.
TURI (BA)
SAGRA DELLE CIGLIEGE
June 18-19
It is a fairly recent festival, characterized by the presence of hundreds of visitors who spend an evening tasting good fruit, listening to light music and folk.
The Turi cherry is called “railroad”, it is cultivated in Turi and in nearby Conversano, and is so named because the cherries were exported by rail through freight wagons, all over Europe.
VALENZANO (BA)
SAGRA DELLA FOCACCIA
1st Sunday of August
Even in Valenzano the culture of focaccia is very heartfelt and is made of excellent quality, so much so that according to some it is the best in Puglia, so you just have to taste, express your own judgment and rely on both smell and palate.
