CRITA - Festival of the Arts

A festival that travels through the towns of Salento

CRITA - Festival of the Arts is a traveling festival dedicated to theater, music, and dance, conceived and produced by the Ventinovenove cooperative under the artistic direction of Gabriele Polimeno, Mary Negro, and Giuseppe Bortone. Every summer, the festival traverses five municipalities in the Salento area of Lecce - Bagnolo del Salento, Collepasso, Cutrofiano, Galatone, and Maglie - transforming squares, historic palaces, theaters, and cultural spaces into meeting points between artists and the community.

Bagnolo del Salento, a stop on the tour

A town of just a few hundred inhabitants in the province of Lecce, Bagnolo del Salento is one of the five stops on the festival's itinerary. Each year, the event brings prose, storytelling, and performing arts here, often hosted in the town's green spaces and squares during summer evenings with free admission and voluntary contributions. Bagnolo's participation, alongside the other partner municipalities, helps build a widespread cultural network that highlights even the smallest centers of the region.

The theme: water and clay

The festival takes its name from 'creta' (clay), the symbolic material of the Cutrofiano area and its ceramic tradition: without water, clay remains dust. The themes of the various editions revolve around this image, interpreting culture as a flow capable of crossing and regenerating communities. The 9th edition in 2026 is dedicated to 'Flowing Water', a metaphor for a culture that unites towns just as a river unites its banks.

A network supported by the region

CRITA is the summer program of an annual project funded by POC Puglia 2021-2027 funds and realized in partnership with the municipalities of Bagnolo del Salento, Collepasso, Cutrofiano, Galatone, and Maglie, with the patronage of Legacoop Puglia. The festival weaves together big names from the national theater and music scene with deep roots in Salento, offering the public an opportunity to discover the inland villages of Lecce through live performance.

Environment and atmosphere

CRITA's evenings in Bagnolo del Salento and the other municipalities mostly take place outdoors during the summer, following an intimate and participatory format. The public is invited to follow the festival as it moves from town to town, in an itinerary that combines art, conviviality, and the discovery of the southern Puglia region.