Emigrant Festival of Nembro

The memory of those who left

Nembro — a municipality in the Seriana Valley, in the Province of Bergamo — is a land that knows the history of emigration well: like many towns in the Bergamo area, it has seen generations of its sons and daughters leave for Belgium, France, Switzerland, and beyond in search of work. The Emigrant Festival was created to preserve this memory and takes place every year in August.

Remembering Marcinelle

The commemorative heart of the festival is the remembrance of the Marcinelle tragedy: on August 8, 1956, in the Bois du Cazier mine in Belgium, a fire a thousand meters deep caused the deaths of 262 miners, 136 of whom were Italian. The Emigrant Festival honors their memory and that of all emigrants, transmitting to new generations the value of the sacrifice of those who left their homeland.

The Museum of Mining and Emigration

The event takes place at the Museum of Mining and Emigration, in Piazzetta dell'Emigrante, and is organized by the Associazione Nembresi nel Mondo APS with the Municipality of Nembro and the Migrants Office of the Diocese of Bergamo. Among recent initiatives is the inauguration of the "Miner's Hut," a faithful reconstruction of the accommodation of Italian miners in Belgium. With over thirty years of history, the Emigrant Festival is an event of profound civic and identity significance for Nembro, intertwining memory, culture, and community.