L'Alba dei Popoli (Otranto) - New Year's Eve / New Year's Eve
Suggestive, magical first dawn of Italy in every sense: the first real dawn of the country takes place every year in Otranto, the easternmost city of the nation. From all over Italy and beyond the borders, thousands gather in the easternmost square of Italy to wait, together with the best Salento and Italian artists, international guests, TV presenters and emerging musicians, for the first sun of the year. rise on our beautiful peninsula. The dawn of Otranto, reflected in the sea, is however a spectacle every day: to be seen at least once in a lifetime.

Fòcara di Sant'Antonio (Novoli) - January 17th
Patronal feast of Novoli, dedicated to the saint of fire. Usually it takes place over two days and involves the lighting of the traditional fòcara di Sant'Antonio, a gigantic bonfire of branches finely designed by masters of the sector that slowly goes out, suggesting that we are approaching a period in which the shortage of resources leaves room for the flourishing of Nature.

Gallipoli Carnival from January 17th until Shrove Tuesday
Since 1941, one of the largest Carnival events in Puglia. The event begins on the day of Sant'Antonio abbot del fuoco (te lu focu), with the lighting of the characteristic fòcara, a bonfire made with olive branches. The fòcare are widespread in various Salento events and represent the end of the winter famine. On Shrove Tuesday, the traditional parade of allegorical floats is held, a symbol of the newfound spring abundance. Mask of the Gallipoli tradition is lu Titoru (Theodore) a young man who, returning from the military, asked his mother to prepare him a plate of meatballs, but in the fury of eating them he choked and lost his life. The representative chariot depicts a group of women (the chiangimorti) who mourn for him, the distraught mother (the Coremma, symbol of Lent) and Theodore lying in the center.

Carnival of Grecìa Salentina (Martignano) one month until Shrove Tuesday
With the homonymous sweet and salty flavor, which wants to exorcise the malaise caused by the restrictions and poverty that the ancients lived during the winter, it is the Carnival of Grecìa Salentina, which has now become a review of events lasting an entire month with creative workshops, events and dinners-shows throughout the griko territory. At the end of the month that symbolizes the last sacrifice coinciding with Lent, there is the explosion of joy on Mardi Gras in Martignano. The symbolic mask of this crowded Salento carnival is lu Paulinu, an exuberant heir who with his revelries infuriated the town until he died for his vices. His wife Quaremma (Lent) mourned him for 40 days and in the end she too died, consumed by sacrifice and pain. In his honor, on Shrove Tuesday his simulacrum is burned, as a purification from sacrifice and winter hardship, a true Salento leitmotiv.

Songs of the Passion (Grecìa Salentina) - Easter
During the Easter period, representations in which people gather to sing - together with the masters of popular grika music - ancient songs in the local language (Griko) inspired by the Passion of Christ take place in all the villages of Salento Greece. The chants are generally repetitive melodies with variations, often sung by thick choirs. The voices that make up the choirs or groups of Salento music are never chosen at random as they have a very characteristic timbre for both women and men.

White night (Lecce) - April
Lecce is notoriously one of the most crowded Italian centers for evening and night life, thanks to the presence of the university and the characteristic gathering of services and clubs in the pedestrian center, also full of historical architectural structures of particular importance. Lively all year round, the capital city hosts the exceptional White Night in April: a night in which the best shows of the year take place. Concerts, art exhibitions, theatrical performances, traveling bands, readings, games, social experiments and interactive shows of all kinds in a single crazy night, usually blessed by a mild and serene climate. In special years, the event is repeated in other seasons.

San Pietro and Paolo delle Tarante (Galatina) - end of June
Patronal feast of Galatina, a splendid town where musical culture is particularly strong. The event is dedicated to St. Peter and Paul, but also to the "Taranta" and the "tarantate", or women suffering from psychosomatic disorders who were treated with dance therapy. The performances of the band and artists from Salento are unmissable.

Santa Domenica (Scorrano) - first Sunday in July
Patronal festival in honor of Santa Domenica in Scorrano, very famous for its impressive lights. Every year the event is very crowded with both faithful and tourists who flock to see the bright decorations that become more and more complex and technological time after time. This party is a real attraction for the whole family.

Feast of San Rocco - Sword Dance (Torre Paduli) - 15/16 August
Every year, on the night between the 15th and 16th of August, the churchyard hosts hundreds of pilgrims who have come to honor the Saint, while the incessant rhythm of the tambourines resounds in the air. They mark the time for the dancers because only here is the "sword dance" relived, a complex ritual in which the dancers mimic with strong gestures of the arms and the use of the index and middle fingers, a sort of rustic duel: provocation, attack, defense, feints, prohibitive blows that mark the fight. It is impossible to tell what the Feast of San Rocco in Torrepaduli is to those who have never participated in a special event and strongly experienced as a sudden "kidnapping": the river of people, the "patrols", the songs and dances, the sound deep and magical of the tambourine. It cannot be told in words, but it is immediately understood by looking at the many spectators who, in front of the Sanctuary, witness the magic. Only at the toll of the bells everything ceases. The patrols suddenly dissolve, just as they were born and in the crisp morning air the cries of goodbye resound, with the promise of meeting again next year.

La Notte della Taranta (Grecìa Salentina) - from July to the end of August
is the largest popular music festival in Italy, dedicated to Salento folk music. It consists of an evening for each town of the Grecìa Salentina, in addition to the most important art cities of Lecce. In these evenings you can listen to numerous groups that reproduce ancient Salento songs both in dialect and in Italian, but above all in Griko, in an original or modern key. The last evening, called "Final Concert", hosts the biggest names of the Italian and international music scene who interpret, singing, playing, dancing and directing the works, the culture of Salento.