Castelvetere Summer Village

The children's summer village in Piazza Dante

The Castelvetere Summer Village is the mid-summer event that turns the main square of Castelvetere in Val Fortore over to the town's children and teenagers. For a few afternoons in mid-August, Piazza Dante—the same space overlooked by the Town Hall at number 6—undergoes a transformation: inflatable games, trampolines, and entertainment stations arrive, turning the village center into a small open-air playground for families.

This is not a massive festival with big-name headliners, and that is precisely its strength: it is a community celebration, built by the Pro Loco of Castelvetere in Val Fortore together with the Municipality. In the 2025 edition, it took place from August 13th to 15th during the afternoon, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, when the Sannio heat begins to fade and the square becomes comfortable again.

What to find at the Summer Village

• Inflatable games set up in the square, designed for younger children;
• Trampolines and jumping equipment;
• Entertainment with group games and guided activities for children and teenagers;
• An open-air space in the town center where parents can chat while their children play;
• The setting of the historic center, just steps away from the sculpted portal of the Church of San Nicola and the 18th-century marquis palace.

Castelvetere in Val Fortore: a village that comes back to life in summer

Castelvetere in Val Fortore is a town of just over one thousand inhabitants in the province of Benevento, Campania, perched at about 706 meters above sea level in the upper Fortore valley, in that corner of Sannio where the region borders Puglia and Molise. It is about 35 kilometers from Benevento and 90 from Naples. Like many inland Apennine villages, it experiences significant depopulation throughout the year, but in August, the town truly fills up with the return of Castelvetresi emigrants and their families.

This is why an event like the Summer Village means much more than its scale might suggest. Concentrating children's activities around Ferragosto gives the children returning to the village a reason to meet and enjoy the square, and offers residents a moment of collective social life: a small-scale cultural policy for a village where there are no amusement parks within dozens of kilometers.

A very active Pro Loco

The Summer Village did not appear out of thin air. The Pro Loco of Castelvetere in Val Fortore, led by president Luca Forte, has for years curated a varied summer program, the Fortore Summer Festival, which reached its third edition in 2024, when the town hosted Mogol and Gianmarco Caroccia on August 15th for the show "Emozioni," dedicated to the songs of Battisti and Mogol. The same association successfully completed the process to have the scroppella of Castelvetere—the Shrove Thursday fritter, freshly fried and dusted with sugar—recognized by the Campania Region in 2026 as a Traditional Agri-food Product; a festival dedicated to the scroppella is also traditionally held on August 5th.

The Castelvetere Summer Village is therefore the piece dedicated to the little ones within a broader Castelvetere summer that alternates music, gastronomy, and popular tradition, reaching its peak in mid-August.

A 2026 edition yet to be announced

As of the writing of this guide, no official dates have been published for the 2026 edition of the Castelvetere Summer Village. Based on the 2025 event, it typically falls during the week of Ferragosto: those wishing to attend should follow the channels of the Pro Loco and the Municipality of Castelvetere in Val Fortore, which usually release the program just a few days before the activities begin.