Farming Civilization and Threshing Festival

The festival that brings the threshing floor back to life

Every summer, the Carretiello hamlet—a few houses scattered among the fields of Roccadaspide, in the province of Salerno—returns to what it was for generations: a threshing floor where grain is beaten by hand, amidst the dust, the noise of vintage machines, and the voices of onlookers. The Farming Civilization and Threshing Festival was born from this very act and repeats it before the public, not as a folkloric show but as an exercise in collective memory: a way to ensure that the knowledge of agricultural labor is not lost with the last generation that truly practiced it.

Threshing on the floor, the heart of the event

The center of the event is the re-enactment of the threshing. The grain, cultivated throughout the year using traditional methods by the families of the district, is threshed on the floor with the help of vintage agricultural machines restored for the occasion: it is the only time of the year these vehicles return to doing what they were built for. Around the threshing floor, the Farming Civilization Exhibition gathers tools, utensils, and objects from field work, while workshops and educational moments explain to the younger generation how we get from grain to bread.

The vintage agricultural vehicle parade

The official opening is entrusted to the Vintage Vehicle Parade: a procession of historic tractors and restored agricultural machinery travels through the streets of Roccadaspide before reaching the district. It is the most photographed moment of the festival and, for many owners, the chance to showcase vehicles that actually worked these lands. The parade is followed, on the threshing floor, by the blessing of the grain and the first threshing demonstration.

Dining on Roccadaspide cuisine

The food stalls offer traditional local farming dishes, prepared by the district families using zero-mile products and old-fashioned recipes: handmade cavatelli, zitoni with sauce, braciole, fried meatballs, the local mulignana imbottunata (stuffed eggplant), Roccadaspide pizza, artisanal cured meats, and local wine. The festival explicitly claims its bond with the Mediterranean Diet, the agricultural biodiversity of the Cilento region, and an idea of slow tourism, made of long breaks and stories shared at the table.

Folk music and dance evenings

Every evening, the festival area comes alive with local musical groups: folk music, popular songs, and ballroom dancing until late. There are no big headliners, but local bands who know the repertoire of the Calore Valley and fill the dance floor until late at night, with an audience that mixes grandparents, families, and young people who have returned to the village for the summer.

Roccadaspide, between the Calore and Cilento

Roccadaspide is a municipality in the Calore Valley, at the gates of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park. The town is known primarily for its medieval castle and its chestnuts, but its deepest identity remains agricultural. In a Campania where summer is dominated by coastal events, the Carretiello festival has become a reference point for the inland areas: an event that does not chase the numbers of seaside tourism but, for this very reason, offers the visitor a much more authentic image of the Cilento countryside.

Who organizes the festival

The event is promoted by the volunteer association Carretiello in Evoluzione, with the patronage of the Campania Region, the Municipality of Roccadaspide, and Coldiretti Salerno, and with the support of the BCC of Aquara. The organizers point out that the festival receives no public funding: it is the families of the district who cook, provide the tools and vintage vehicles, set up the spaces, and animate the evenings. It is this choral participation, even more than the program, that gives the festival its character.