Calabria Events

Calabria’s calendar is religious, agricultural and, in one case, recognised by UNESCO. The largest occasions belong to specific towns rather than to the region.

La Varia di Palmi, August

A thirty-metre processional structure representing the Assumption, carried through Palmi on the shoulders of around two hundred men, with a child riding at the top as the Madonna. It is inscribed by UNESCO as part of a group of Italian shoulder-borne processional machines and does not take place every year.

La Madonna della Consolazione, Reggio Calabria, September

The city’s patronal festival, in which an icon is carried from its sanctuary on the hill down into the city and back again weeks later. It is the largest religious event in Calabria.

The chilli festival at Diamante, September

Several days built entirely around peperoncino, including eating competitions, on the Tyrrhenian coast. Unserious in tone and genuinely local in origin.

Tarantella and summer festivals

The Kaulonia festival on the Ionian coast and smaller village events keep Calabrian tarantella alive as participatory dance rather than performance, usually in August.

L’Affruntata at Easter

On Easter Sunday in towns across the region, three statues — the risen Christ, San Giovanni and the Madonna — are carried at a run towards each other, so that John reaches the Madonna, tells her, and her black mourning veil is pulled away at the moment of meeting. The run is repeated three times and the crowd reacts as though the outcome were uncertain.

The working year

Bergamot is picked from November to March, olives from late October, and the pig is killed in winter. The sagre follow the crops.

Accommodation is tightest on both coasts through August; the interior stays quiet year-round.