Food Fest Rome

A festival that tells the story of Rome through its food

Food Fest Rome is a food and wine festival with a clear focus: not the monumental Rome found in guidebooks, but the authentic, local Rome—the one found in neighborhoods outside the historic center, in street markets, local taverns, and home-cooked recipes passed down through generations. The official subtitle of the event—Food and Wine Festival of Local Rome—openly declares this choice, which is both gastronomic and cultural.

The event is promoted by Euroagricoltori A.P.S., a social promotion association based in Rome that works to protect agricultural entrepreneurs, support farmers' incomes, and promote food education, sustainable agriculture, and the value of the primary sector in the Italian economy. This agricultural background defines the festival's approach, which creates a dialogue between producers from the Roman countryside and the Lazio region and the citizens of the capital.

Roman cuisine as a daily heritage

The culinary repertoire the festival draws upon is that of the traditional Roman and Lazio culture: a cuisine born from resourcefulness, the pastoral traditions of the Agro Romano, and the noble use of leftovers from the Testaccio slaughterhouse. It is the world of the pasta dishes known globally, seasonal vegetables from Lazio's gardens, sheep's milk cheeses from the Castelli and Sabina areas, and bread and baked goods from neighborhood bakeries. In Lazio, this cuisine is not a museum piece but a daily practice that continues to define the city's identity.

A project supported by the City of Rome

In 2025, the sixth edition of the event—officially titled Food Fest Rome VI—was granted funding through the 'Open25 — Artes et Iubilaeum' public notice by the City of Rome. This program saw the capital allocate five million euros to promote cultural initiatives during the 2025 Jubilee, with the stated goal of expanding the cultural offering and increasing the appeal of the city's peripheral areas, creating new connections between the suburbs and the center.

The notice was divided into several thematic sections, including one specifically dedicated to community gastronomic culture experiences: this is the natural setting for a festival like Food Fest Rome, which treats food not as entertainment, but as a collective practice and a tool for neighborhood cohesion. The initiatives admitted to the program were scheduled to take place between April and December 2025.

What to expect

• Typical products from the Roman countryside and the provinces of Lazio, presented directly by the producers
• Tastings of traditional Roman dishes
• Wines from the Castelli Romani and other Lazio denominations
• An explicit focus on peripheral neighborhoods as the venue for the event, rather than just as an audience to reach
• A community-based and participatory dimension, consistent with the organizer's associative mission

Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital

The festival takes place within the territory of the City of Rome, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Lazio Region. Rome is a city where the geography of taste changes radically from one district to another: local markets, neighborhood festivals, and traditional feasts form a widespread gastronomic network that rarely appears in tourist itineraries. Events like Food Fest Rome work on this very scale, restoring visibility to a food heritage that belongs to the ordinary life of the capital rather than its shop window.

Information and verification

As of the writing of this entry, the only publicly available documentation consists of the official acts of the City of Rome regarding the 2025 edition. The venue, dates, and detailed program have not been released through public sources: it is recommended to contact Euroagricoltori A.P.S. directly for updated information on the upcoming edition.