Palermo Events

One festival dominates Palermo’s year, and the rest of the calendar is religious and seasonal.

Il Festino di Santa Rosalia, 14-15 July

The city’s patron, credited with ending the plague of 1624. A great decorated carriage carries her image along the Cassaro from the Norman Palace to the sea, followed by enormous crowds, with fireworks over the waterfront on the night of the fifteenth. It is the largest religious festival in Sicily and the city is full for the better part of a week.

The pilgrimage, 4 September

The quieter half of the same devotion: a walk up Monte Pellegrino to the sanctuary in the cave where the saint’s remains were found, made overnight on foot by many Palermitani.

The Morti, 2 November

All Souls’ Day is a children’s festival in Palermo. The dead are said to bring presents and sweets overnight, and the marzipan fruit of the frutta martorana belongs to this date.

The season on the coast

Mondello runs a full beach season from June to September, and the city decants there in August. Outside those months the seafront is quiet and the water is still swimmable well into autumn.

Book ahead for mid-July; the rest of the year Palermo absorbs visitors easily.