Festa Farina Forca – Magliano Cavatiello Festival

A week of flavors in the heart of Cilento

Every year, from July 31st to August 6th, the village of Magliano Nuovo — a hamlet of the municipality of Magliano Vetere, in the province of Salerno, Campania — transforms into a crossroads of taste, tradition, and celebration. The Festa Farina Forca – Magliano Cavatiello Festival is one of the longest-running and most beloved festivals in inland Cilento: seven consecutive nights where the village streets fill with aromas, music, and visitors from across the province.

The event takes place entirely outdoors at an altitude of 650 meters, within the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park: a location that, on summer evenings, offers a rare coolness and a view overlooking the surrounding valleys. It is no coincidence that the local dialect slogan used by organizers to invite visitors says: «The remedy for the heat??? Come to the Festival, it's cool here!!!».

Cavatiello, the absolute star

The signature dish is the Magliano cavatiello, pasta made by hand according to the local recipe, rolled and hollowed one by one by the village women. It is offered in two versions that perfectly capture the essence of Cilento cuisine:

• Cavatielli with fresh tomato and basil sauce, the simplest and most ancient version;
• Cavatielli with mutton ragù, savory and slow-cooked, a dish for special occasions in the pastoral communities of the hinterland.

The name of the festival itself recalls the most basic elements of peasant labor — flour (farina) and the pitchfork (forca) — the humble ingredients from which a simple pasta was born, eventually becoming the gastronomic identity of an entire village.

The menu of Cilento tradition

Alongside the cavatielli, the food stalls offer a complete journey through local cuisine:

• Appetizers of artisanal cured meats and cheeses, preserved vegetables, and homemade pickles;
• Grilled sausage and trout;
• «mulignane 'mbuttunate», eggplant stuffed according to the Cilento recipe;
• Side dishes of turnip greens and potatoes, fried potatoes with peppers, and zucchini;
• Homemade desserts: zeppole, struffoli, cannoli, and dried fruit sweets;
• Local wine and beer.

Evenings of folk music, theater, and re-enactments

The Festa Farina Forca is not just about food. Every night, the village comes alive with performances, folk music, dancing, theater, and historical re-enactments that tell the story of a territory rich in culture: folk groups roam the alleys of the historic center, while the square turns into a dance floor until late at night. The performances bring back to life trades, gestures, and scenes of peasant life that have long since vanished, in a format that has turned the event into a small festival of popular culture rather than a simple village fair.

Piazzetta Belvedere, the heart of the festival

The nerve center is Piazzetta Belvedere, overlooking the Cilento hills: this is where the stage, tables, and the sunset ritual are concentrated, drawing visitors every evening before the stalls open. The festival area then extends along the narrow streets of the historic center of Magliano Nuovo, a village of a few hundred inhabitants that multiplies its population for a week.

From 2004 to today

The festival was born in 2004 on the initiative of the Manlium Association: a group of local friends who, as they tell it, sat around a café table and decided they wanted to change the world, or at least that small corner of the world they proudly called «home». Since then, the event has grown to become one of the reference summer events of inland Cilento, awarded in 2020 with the «Primula d'Oro – Oscar of Cilento» in the events category. In 2025, the event reached the milestone of its twentieth edition.

Magliano Vetere and the Cilento to discover

The village of Magliano Vetere sits halfway up the slopes of Mount Faito at an altitude of 650 meters, with just under six hundred inhabitants distributed between the main town and the hamlets of Magliano Nuovo, Capizzo, and Palazzo Soccorso. It is an excellent starting point for excursions in the Cilento National Park and is perfect for combining an evening at the festival with a day at the seaside or among ancient ruins: the beaches of Agropoli, Castellabate, and Acciaroli, as well as the archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia, can be reached by car in about an hour.