Cavatello Festival

A festival born from a home-cooked dish

The Cavatello Festival is one of the newest highlights of the summer in Montella, a town in the province of Avellino, Campania. Conceived in 2024 by the artisanal pasta workshop Mani in Pasta, the event brings to the streets a tradition that has always been part of Irpinian home kitchens: the hand-rolling of fresh pasta. The second edition took place on August 22, 2025, along Via del Corso as part of the municipal "Montella Estate" calendar, which hosts the town's traditional, cultural, sporting, and gastronomic events from May to September.

This is not a massive festival for thousands of visitors, but a community celebration: an August evening where the main street of the town center becomes a communal table, and the star of the show is simply the pasta eaten every day.

Cavatello, the identity of the Irpinian table

The cavatello—also known as cicatiello, cicaluccolo, or trillo depending on the town—is the most common short pasta shape in the province of Avellino. It is made from a simple dough of semolina and water: the small rope of dough is cut into equal parts and then dragged with the tips of the index and middle fingers to create the characteristic hollow that holds the sauce. It is a quick, almost automatic gesture for those who have practiced it for years, and this manual skill is the heart of the festival.

In the villages at the foot of the Picentini Mountains, cavatello has always accompanied Sunday sauces and local garden and pasture products. The variety of names used from valley to valley tells the story of how deeply rooted this shape is in the gastronomic identity of Irpinia.

Via del Corso, the stage for the evening

The festival takes place outdoors along Via del Corso, the hub of Montella's evening strolls, lined with shops, bars, and the organizing pasta workshop itself. The event is held in the evening: in 2025, it kicked off at 8:00 PM, when the day's heat fades and the center fills with residents and vacationers.

• Simple, village-style format featuring tastings of fresh pasta
• Outdoor urban setting in the historic center of Montella
• Evening schedule, family-friendly
• Artisanal organization linked to a local business

Montella, between chestnuts and the Picentini Mountains

Montella is known throughout Campania primarily for its PGI Montella Chestnut, celebrated every autumn with a major dedicated festival, and for the landscape of the Picentini Mountains, with their chestnut forests, springs, and hiking trails. The town is part of the upper Calore valley and is a key center in this inland area of Irpinia, where the agri-food economy—chestnuts, dairy farms, fresh pasta—remains a strong element of identity.

Those arriving for the Cavatello Festival will find a context that goes beyond a single evening: a mountain village where gastronomy is not a tourist display but a daily practice, and where summer events often arise from the grassroots, through the initiative of associations, Pro Loco, and small local businesses.

A young and growing event

With its first edition in 2024 and the second in August 2025, the Cavatello Festival is still an event in the making. However, the formula has already proven to work: a recognizable product, a central location, an evening schedule, and streamlined organization. It is the type of event that, in Irpinia, can quickly consolidate and become a small late-summer classic.

What to expect in 2026

As of the update of this page, the dates for the 2026 edition have not yet been officially announced by the Municipality of Montella or the organizers. Considering the two previous editions, both held in August as part of the "Montella Estate" calendar, it is reasonable to expect an event in the same window. We recommend checking the information before traveling: the program is usually released a few weeks in advance through local channels.