Ju Buk Festival

The Ju Buk Festival in Peschici

The Ju Buk Festival is a literary event dedicated to women authors and women's thought, which enlivens the historic center of Peschici every summer—a village overlooking the sea in the heart of the Gargano promontory, in the province of Foggia. Born in the Apennine territory and grown into an international cultural platform, the festival presents itself as the first explicitly feminist and anti-fascist literary event in Europe: a political and cultural space that weaves together critical thinking, journalism, publishing, activism, and the arts.

A traveling festival along the transhumance routes

The uniqueness of Ju Buk lies in its traveling nature: the festival connects two villages linked by the ancient transhumance routes, Peschici in Puglia and Scanno in Abruzzo, with the 2026 edition also being part of the L'Aquila Italian Capital of Culture calendar. From Peschici, where the festival opens its Gargano days, the baton passes to the Abruzzo villages, in a cultural dialogue between the Gargano sea and the Apennine mountains.

Direction and themes

Conceived and directed by Eleonora de Nardis Giansante—sociologist, writer, journalist, and cultural entrepreneur—the festival builds a packed program of meetings, interviews, performances, exhibitions, live music, readings, photography, satire, and book presentations. The themes addressed touch on the great issues of the contemporary world: gender-based violence, sexual and emotional education, discrimination, reproductive rights, women's work, youth mental health, disinformation, and conflicts. At the center remains women's literature, told through the voices of writers, essayists, and journalists.

Peschici and the Gargano

The setting of Piazza Sant'Antonio, in the historic center of Peschici, with its white houses overlooking the sea and the village alleys, gives the festival an intimate atmosphere that is also open to the tourists who crowd the Gargano in the heart of summer. The Municipality of Peschici supports the festival as part of the town's wider summer program, fostering a dialogue between culture, tradition, and landscape.

A free and open event

All Ju Buk Festival events are free of charge, and many meetings are broadcast via live streaming to expand the audience beyond the square. It is a festival that, in the words of the director, "does not close but connects": a community of readers, authors, and citizens that meets every year between Puglia and Abruzzo to talk about rights, culture, and the future.