Carnival Festival

A village carnival in the land of wine

The Carnival Festival in Torrecuso is the kind of event that captures the soul of the small Sannio towns better than any guidebook. Located in the province of Benevento, in Campania, on the slopes of the Taburno-Camposauro massif, this rural village is famous throughout Italy for its vineyards and Aglianico del Taburno wine. Here, when February arrives, Carnival isn't a show built for tourists; it is a celebration the village organizes for itself, for its children, and for its youth.

Piazza A. Mellusi, the heart of the celebration

The stage is Piazza A. Mellusi, the historic square of Torrecuso named after an illustrious writer and deputy born in this ancient Sannite village. Connected to the main street and adjacent to Piazza G. Matteotti, it is an open, barrier-free public space—the natural gathering point for the town. For an afternoon, it fills with confetti, streamers, improvised costumes, and homemade masks, while the pavement turns into a dance floor for baby dance and children's games.

A festival organized by the Youth Forum

The event is organized by the Torrecuso Youth Forum, a youth participation body established by the Municipality, which has become one of the most active engines of local life over the years. The Forum now works in partnership with the Nuova Pro Loco Torricolus and the Gramigna Association on a shared project to promote the town, which also hosts the Up & Bascio festival in the summer. The Carnival Festival is the winter highlight of this calendar: limited resources, plenty of volunteering, and a clear goal—keeping the historic center alive even during the cold months.

The Carnival of Friendship and Sannite tradition

Torrecuso has a carnival history that goes beyond the square. The town was a co-founder, along with Paupisi, of the Carnival of Friendship, an initiative that later involved Solopaca and Ponte: four neighboring towns that exchange stages, floats, and masked groups to build cultural bridges between communities. Past editions featured a gathering of floats and masks in the afternoon, a parade through the streets, performances by the Torrecuso Majorettes in Piazza A. Mellusi, and the Misi 'e l'anno, an ancient peasant pantomime where twelve figures personify the months of the year—an oral heritage typical of the Campanian hinterland that has never been fully abandoned here.

What to expect

• A local crowd: families, grandparents, and groups of teenagers, all on foot, mostly in costume.
• Music and entertainment in the square, with dancing, games, and confetti until evening.
• Handmade costumes, often more creative than store-bought ones: it's all part of the fun.
• Traditional Carnival sweets of Campania, from chiacchiere to sanguinaccio, found in the windows of local bars and pastry shops.
• Free entry: no tickets, no reservations needed.

Torrecuso beyond Carnival

Those who visit Torrecuso for Carnival discover a municipality that thrives on food, wine, and landscapes. The local calendar revolves around wine: VinEstate in summer, Novello e Castagne in autumn, and the Up & Bascio festival in July, which brings together culture, music, and traditions. The territory is part of the Taburno-Camposauro Regional Park, an area of trails, forests, and rural villages just a few kilometers from Benevento. A visit in February, with the square in celebration and the wineries resting for winter, is perhaps the most authentic way to get to know it.