From the Mountain to the Sea

An arts and ecology festival in lower Cilento

From the Mountain to the Sea is a widespread arts and ecology festival aimed at children and teenagers, which every summer travels through the municipalities of Casaletto Spartano and Tortorella, in lower Cilento, in the province of Salerno (Campania). Founded in 2023 on the initiative of the MOOLTI APS association, it proposes a different way of inhabiting a mountain territory that looks toward the sea: walking, observing, collecting traces, drawing, writing, and building together. It is not a series of performances, but a workshop-based journey that culminates in two public evenings in the town square.

Casaletto Spartano, the Valle della Lontra and the Capelli di Venere

Casaletto Spartano is a small town in the province of Salerno overlooking the Gulf of Policastro, known primarily for the Capelli di Venere Oasis, a waterfall immersed in vegetation along the Rio Casaletto stream, and for the Valle della Lontra Trail, which climbs the inland ridges to neighboring villages. These very places become the festival's open-air classrooms, along with the San Nilo Path, the historical route connecting the area's Byzantine-tradition villages. Walking from one village to another is not a logistical detail: it is the gesture that holds the entire project together, because the landscape is understood with the body before it is understood with books.

The method: walking, observing, creating

Each edition revolves around a theme that shapes the activities. The children do not just watch; they participate: they are the ones who choose what to collect, what to draw, and what music to play in the square. The festival brings together very different tools that intertwine over the course of the days.

• Walks and hikes led by zoologists and nature guides along the Valle della Lontra Trail and the San Nilo Path.
• Scientific observations of local flora and fauna, with experts in ecology and river and marine environments.
• Artistic workshops in drawing, creative writing, and composition, led by artists and designers.
• Open-air cinema and musical selections curated directly by the children.
• Collective final moments: parades, public presentations, and closing parties open to the entire community.

Themes of recent editions

In 2025, the third edition was titled Manifestos for the Mountain and the Sea: the collective writing of true artistic manifestos, with which the new generation affirmed the ecological principles necessary for the protection of these fragile environments, from the spring to the coast. In 2026, the fourth edition was titled Living Mountain Archives, an invitation to look at the territory with new eyes by building a collective archive capable of gathering memories, sounds, and signs of the Cilento mountains.

A project born with the kids

The festival is conceived and co-constructed by MOOLTI APS together with a group of children and teenagers who have been following the association's activities in the area for years. This is its most evident peculiarity: the programming is not imposed from above, but discussed and decided with those who experience it. The result is an event that is small in numbers but ambitious in method, which has already involved, in addition to Casaletto Spartano and Tortorella, the coastal hamlet of Villammare, where the final parade by the sea was held in previous editions.

Who organizes it

The event is organized by MOOLTI APS, an association of art, design, and ecology based in Torraca, in the province of Salerno, active with schools, workshops, and projects to combat educational poverty. The festival is realized with the patronage and support of the Municipalities of Tortorella and Casaletto Spartano and CSV Salerno, and with the collaboration of local entities such as Ardea APS, Cammini Bizantini, the Valle della Lontra Trail, Transluoghi, and Parco Marinella.

Why it's worth attending

Those who arrive in this corner of Campania during the festival days find a summer different from that of the large seaside resorts: no imposing stages, but a village square, a screening under the stars, and a final DJ set that brings families and young people together. Workshop activities are reserved for registered participants, while the evenings are open to everyone and free of charge. It is an opportunity to discover the inland lower Cilento, its trails, and its waterfalls, in the company of those who tell its story every day.