Grilled Meat Festival

One of the most anticipated festivals of the Cilento summer

Every year, in the middle of August, Campora — a small town of just over three hundred inhabitants in the province of Salerno, in Campania — transforms into the barbecue capital of the Cilento hinterland. The Grilled Meat Festival is a well-established gastronomic event, held every summer, attracting visitors from neighboring towns, the Cilento coast, and the Vallo di Diano. The 2026 edition is scheduled from Saturday, August 8th to Wednesday, August 12th.

The scent of firewood and glowing embers fills the village from late afternoon: it is the signal that the grills are ready and the festivities can begin.

The menu: Cilento cuisine cooked over embers

The culinary offering is simple and generous, built on traditional dishes prepared according to time-honored customs:

• Appetizers of local cured meats and cheeses
• Roasted bread with melted caciocavallo
• Foglie e patate (greens and potatoes) and ciambotta, humble dishes of the Cilento peasant tradition
• French fries
• Grilled meats: veal, pancetta, sausage, and the renowned rabbit
• Local red wine — in recent editions, Aglianico — and traditional desserts

The meats are strictly cooked over wood embers sourced from the forests surrounding Campora: according to the organizers, this is what gives the dishes an aromatic quality and flavor hard to find elsewhere. At the grills, expert local grill masters work with patience and care throughout the evenings.

Music, conviviality, and space for the little ones

The festival is not just about food. The event area reserves ample space for the concert zone, with live music accompanying every evening until late: the 2024 edition featured local artists and bands such as Giuseppe Latronico, the Ciullo's band, Angel Galzerano, Max Rener, Pasquale Calabria, Pietro Bruno, and Vienteterra. There is also an area dedicated to children, with inflatables, cotton candy, popcorn, and mascots: a detail that makes the festival suitable for families with young children.

Where it takes place: a green area one kilometer from the village

The festival area is not located in the village square but about a kilometer from the center, in a green area equipped with ample parking. This choice offers a concrete advantage: you eat outdoors, in the cool August hill air, with the possibility of arriving comfortably by car. In past editions, the festival also involved the streets and gardens of the center, transforming the village into a journey of taste through the alleys.

Campora, a village in the Cilento National Park

Campora stands at an altitude of 520 meters, on a hill overlooking the Trenico valley, a tributary of the Calore river, within the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park. The name derives from the Latin campus, meaning flat land or cultivated earth. The village preserves the church of San Nicola — the patron saint, celebrated on December 6th — and the chapel of the Madonna della Neve, and is surrounded by olive groves, chestnut woods, and the Pruno forest area, from which naturalistic trails towards the Calore river start, much frequented in summer.

The municipality is part of the Calore Salernitano Mountain Community and is about 15 kilometers from Vallo della Lucania, the main service center of the Cilento hinterland.

Why it's worth the trip

In a Cilento summer crowded with festivals, the Grilled Meat Festival has carved out a precise niche: that of an authentic village feast, without frills, where the draw is the quality of the raw materials and the wood-fire cooking. Five consecutive evenings, festival-style prices, long tables, and live music: it is the most direct way to understand what August is like in the hinterland of the Salerno province, far from the crowded beaches of the coast.