Padua Events

The Feast of St Anthony on 13 June is Padua's defining annual event: a procession through the city, the saint's relics carried out of the basilica, and pilgrims arriving in numbers that visibly change the character of the whole southern half of the centre for several days.

Sherwood Festival (June-July) runs for several weeks on the city's outskirts -- a large, long-running open-air music and culture festival grown out of student and independent circles, and a good indication of the other Padua.

Padova Jazz Festival arrives in autumn, spread across theatres and smaller venues in the centre.

Through December, Christmas markets occupy Prato della Valle and the central piazzas, and the city is at its most local -- few foreign visitors, and the squares given back to the people who use them the rest of the year.