Casalba Mozzarella and Pizza Festival

A village festival in the heart of the Terra di Lavoro

Casalba is a small district of about four hundred inhabitants in the municipality of Macerata Campania, in the Province of Caserta, just a stone's throw from the border with Portico di Caserta. For a few evenings a year, this quiet village in the Terra di Lavoro changes its face: around Largo De Matteis and the parish fields, in the green area near Parco di Mauro, the lights of the food stalls turn on and the Mozzarella and Pizza Festival attracts visitors from all over the Caserta area.

Born just a few years ago but already a fixture on the local calendar, the event has grown from edition to edition, now spanning several consecutive evenings. It is not a commercial fair or a staged event: it is a parish festival in the most authentic sense of the term, organized by the community for the community, with volunteers at the counters and families sitting at tables under the fairy lights.

Mozzarella and pizza, the two stars

The festival's title says it all. Caserta mozzarella, produced in the plains that have made the history of the Campanian buffalo, and pizza baked on the spot are the two pillars of the menu. Revolving around them is a rich array of popular Southern Italian cuisine:

• Caciocavallo impiccato, melted over embers and served on slices of bread
• Arrosticini cooked over charcoal
• Snails, a novelty introduced in recent editions
• Sandwiches, traditional local desserts, and wine

The stalls open every evening starting at 8:00 PM: the classic time for Southern summer festivals, when the heat subsides and the square fills up until late at night.

Music, dancing, and piano bar

Each evening features its own entertainment. The program alternates between piano bar and karaoke with long dance sessions: ballroom dancing, group dances, social dance, and Caribbean rhythms, animated by DJs Pino and Lady B. In previous editions, students from the Fashion Dance school, which is very popular in the area, have also performed. It is popular, cross-generational entertainment designed so that grandparents, parents, and teenagers can all stay in the same square until late.

An event designed for families

Next to the stalls are inflatables and the rides of the Luna Park De Luca, making the festival suitable for the little ones as well. The area is surrounded by greenery, has plenty of seating, and a large parking lot: two details not always taken for granted for a local village festival, and one of the reasons why the event has quickly expanded its audience beyond the borders of Macerata Campania.

Who organizes the festival

The Mozzarella and Pizza Festival is promoted by the Parrocchia di Santa Maria delle Grazie of Casalba together with the Comitato Festeggiamenti Casalba, with the support of residents and local businesses. The parish church, built in 1607 on a pre-existing structure, is the historical landmark of the district and remains the heart around which community life revolves.

Why it's worth the trip

Macerata Campania is already known to fans of popular traditions for the Feast of Sant'Antuono and its 'battuglie di pastellessa', among the most iconic expressions of Campania's folklore. The Mozzarella and Pizza Festival tells the other side of the same town: that of summer conviviality, the dairy products of the Caserta plain, and evenings spent in the square. Free admission, à la carte consumption, authentic atmosphere, and no pretension other than enjoying time together.