Madonie food festival calendar, season by season

In the Madonie, food festivals (sagre) run from April to November, peaking in August, when almost every weekend a village celebrates its product: wheat, manna, hazelnuts, vastedda, salt. Spring starts with Isnello’s vegetables, Scillato’s oranges and San Mauro Castelverde’s caciocavallo; autumn ends with mushrooms, olive oil and cheese. This is the calendar by season, with the usual periods and the dishes of each festival; this year’s dates are on the list of upcoming food festivals.

At a glance

• When: from April to mid-November; August is the busiest month.
• Where: in almost every village of the Park, from the coast at Finale di Pollina to Petralia Soprana at 1,147 metres.
• The longest-running: Nocciole in Polizzi Generosa (69th edition in 2026), Spiga in Gangi (61st), Ulivo in Finale di Pollina (50th).
• Dates: usually announced a few days before; you’ll find them on the list of upcoming food festivals, with source and date of check.

Spring: oranges and caciocavallo

The season opens in April with wild vegetables and continues with the oranges of the Imera valley and mountain cheeses.

Usual period	Festival	Town	The product
April, three days	Festa delle Verdure Tradizionali e Antiche	Isnello	wild herbs and vegetables of the Madonie
early May, a weekend	Sagra dell’Arancia	Scillato	Biondo di Scillato, a late orange
end of May, three days	Festa della Transumanza	Geraci Siculo	cheese and shepherds’ dishes
early June, three days	Sagra del Caciocavallo	San Mauro Castelverde	caciocavallo

The Sagra dell’Arancia reached its 28th edition in 2026 and, besides tastings, offers visits to the water mills. The Sagra del Caciocavallo was at its 20th, with guided tastings and a cheese sculpture contest. For cheese, see the guide to Madonie cheeses.

Early summer: broad beans, wine, beer and ice cream

Between late June and July there are few festivals, but they are very different from one another.

Usual period	Festival	Town	The product
end of June, three or four days	DiVino Festival	Castelbuono	wine, with tastings and masterclasses
29 June	Sagra delle Fave di San Pietro e Paolo	Isnello	broad beans, potatoes and onions
mid-July, three days	Vucciria Beer Festival	Geraci Siculo	craft beers
end of July	Festival del Gelato Madonita	Castellana Sicula	ice cream made with Madonie products

The Sagra delle Fave has a fixed date and in 2026 reached its 47th edition. The dish, broad beans, potatoes and onions dressed with oil, vinegar and salt, is also in the guide to traditional Madonie recipes.

August: the month of festivals

In August the calendar gets crowded. Here are the festivals in order of usual period.

Usual period	Festival	Town	The product
first weekend	Sagra del Grano	Pianello (Petralia Soprana)	wheat, bread and fresh pasta
first half, nine days	Sagra della Spiga e Corteo di Demetra	Gangi	the wheat cycle
mid-August (13 August in 2026), visits to the ash groves in the days before	Sagra della Manna	Pollina	manna
mid-August	Sagra della Vastedda Fritta	Gratteri	vastedda fritta
third Sunday, with concerts in the days before	Sagra delle Nocciole	Polizzi Generosa	hazelnuts
second half, two days	Sagra del Sale	Raffo (Petralia Soprana)	rock salt
a Saturday in the second half	Sagra Dà Purpietta C’Addauru	Gratteri	meatballs with bay leaves
last weekend	Sclafani Bagni Wine & Food Festival	Sclafani Bagni	wine and cooking with chefs

Three tips for August:

• Combine two festivals. The Sagra del Grano in Pianello usually falls within the nine days of the Sagra della Spiga in Gangi. Gratteri, a few kilometres from Cefalù, is handy if you are staying on the coast.
• Book your bed early. See where to stay in Gangi, in Polizzi Generosa or in Pollina.
• Check the times. Many August festivals come alive in the evening: stall opening times are in the programme, which you will find on the event page.

For manna, the ash groves and the Pollina museum, see the guide to Madonie manna. For wheat and hazelnuts, the guide to beans and ancient grains.

Autumn: grape harvest, mushrooms, olive oil and cheese

From late September to mid-November the festivals follow the mountain harvests.

Usual period	Festival	Town	The product
mid or late September, a Saturday	A Pistata	Petralia Soprana	grape harvest, treading grapes by foot
end of October, Friday to Sunday	Funghi Fest	Castelbuono	mushrooms and Madonie products
second-to-last or last weekend of October	Festa dei Sapori Madoniti d’Autunno	Petralia Sottana	Park products, began as a chestnut festival
early November, a weekend	Sagra dell’Ulivo	Finale di Pollina	olive oil and cunzate olives
early November, a weekend	Festa del Corbezzolo	Sant’Ambrogio (Cefalù)	strawberry tree fruit
a weekend in November	Sapori d’Autunno	Isnello	roast chestnuts, honey, cheese, new wine
mid-November, a weekend	Collesano Cheese Festival	Collesano	Madonie cheeses

The Funghi Fest and the Festa dei Sapori Madoniti often fall on the same weekend: in 2026 both ran from 23 to 25 October. The Funghi Fest was at its 20th edition, the Petralia Sottana festival at its 18th. For mushrooms and the rules for picking them, read the guide to Madonie mushrooms and truffles; for olive oil, the guide to olive oil and wine.

Winter: Christmas sweets

Between December and March the festivals stop. The exception is Dolcemente Castelbuono, from the long weekend of the Immaculate Conception: a village of huts with free tastings from the town’s pastry shops, the giant buccellato and testa di turco. Seasonal sweets are in the guide to typical desserts of the Madonie.

The longest-running festivals

Edition numbers matter: they tell you how long a village has been standing up for its product. These are the 2026 edition numbers, from organisers and local news sources.

Festival	Town	2026 edition
Sagra delle Nocciole	Polizzi Generosa	69th
Sagra della Spiga	Gangi	61st
Sagra dell’Ulivo	Finale di Pollina	50th
Sagra delle Fave	Isnello	47th
Sagra del Sale	Raffo	33rd
Sagra dell’Arancia	Scillato	28th
Funghi Fest	Castelbuono	20th
Sagra del Caciocavallo	San Mauro Castelverde	20th

What you eat at Madonie food festivals

Every sagra has its dish, almost always tied to what the village grows or raises. Here is what you’ll find at the stalls, grouped by type, from the programmes and sources of the festivals above.

• Vegetables and pulses: the wild greens of the April festival in Isnello; broad beans, potatoes and onions dressed with olive oil, vinegar and salt on 29 June, also in Isnello.
• Bread, pasta and fried food: bread and fresh pasta at the Sagra del Grano in Pianello; fried vastedda and bay-leaf meatballs in Gratteri; pasta with tomato sauce, crushed manna and almonds in Pollina, on the 3-euro ticket menu of 2026.
• Cheese: caciocavallo in San Mauro Castelverde, the shepherds’ dishes of the Transumanza in Geraci Siculo, Madonie cheeses at the Collesano Cheese Festival.
• Fruit and nuts: Biondo di Scillato oranges, Polizzi Generosa hazelnuts, strawberry tree fruit in Sant’Ambrogio, roast chestnuts at Sapori d’Autunno in Isnello.
• Woods and olive groves: the mushrooms of the Funghi Fest in Castelbuono, olive oil and olive cunzate at the Sagra dell’Ulivo in Finale di Pollina.
• To drink: wine at the DiVino Festival in Castelbuono and in Sclafani Bagni, craft beer at the Vucciria Beer Festival in Geraci Siculo, new wine in Isnello.

Where to find this year’s dates

Festival dates change every year and full programmes often come out only a few days before. This page gives you the usual periods; for the dates of the current edition, checked at the source, use the list of upcoming food festivals in the Madonie, which you can filter by month and town, or the events calendar.

To eat well on days without a festival, the guide what to eat in the Madonie tells you which town to choose for each product.