Hunter's Festival

A village festival in the heart of the Lepini Mountains

The Hunter's Festival takes place in Ceriara, a hamlet of the Municipality of Priverno in the province of Latina, in southern Lazio. The festival area is located near the roundabout of the SS 156 dei Monti Lepini junction—a spacious, easily accessible site with parking that transforms every summer into a village of stalls, long tables, and a stage for live music.

Born from the initiative of the Amici Cacciatori Association, the event has grown to become one of the most popular fixtures in Priverno's summer calendar, attracting visitors not only from Priverno but also from the neighboring towns of the Amaseno Valley and the Lepini area.

Game cuisine, the heart of the event

The common thread of the festival is hunter-style cooking, passed down through generations in the Lepini countryside. The food stalls open every evening, offering game-based dishes and local peasant recipes, served in generous portions at affordable prices.

• First courses seasoned with game meat sauces
• Game main courses prepared according to family recipes
• Seasonal side dishes and local garden produce
• Lepini Mountains wines and draft beer

The service is managed entirely by the association's volunteers, who spend days preparing the field kitchens: it is this collective effort that gives the festival its authentic village character.

Music, games, and dance nights

Alongside the gastronomy, the program alternates between games and entertainment. The early hours of the evening are traditionally dedicated to briscola tournaments and activities for children, including mini-cross rides in the designated area. Following this, the stage hosts live concerts by local bands and dance nights with orchestras—a formula much loved by the local public that keeps the dance floor full until late at night.

The final evening concludes with the raffle draw, a highlight that gathers everyone in front of the stage, with proceeds donated to charity. Over the years, the festival has specifically supported leukemia research at the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome: a charitable vocation that the organizers proudly consider an integral part of the event.

Priverno, between archaeology and Cistercian abbeys

Visitors to the festival can take the opportunity to explore a territory rich in history. Priverno preserves a beautiful medieval old town overlooking the Amaseno Valley, featuring the Town Hall square and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata. Not far away are the archaeological site of Privernum, the ancient Roman city, and above all the Fossanova Abbey, a masterpiece of Gothic-Cistercian architecture in Italy and the place where Saint Thomas Aquinas died.

An event to keep an eye on

The Hunter's Festival is usually held in mid-July, spanning three evenings from Friday to Sunday. The 2025 edition, the fourteenth, took place from July 11th to 13th under the patronage of the Municipality of Priverno. For the next edition, it is best to follow the channels of the Amici Cacciatori Association and the Municipality's pages, where the program is usually published a few weeks before the event.