Laga Rural Villages Cultural Festival (Accumoli stage)

A travelling festival in the heart of the Laga Mountains

The Laga Rural Villages Cultural Festival is a widespread travelling event that winds through dozens of small villages in the Central Apennines, spanning the provinces of Rieti, L'Aquila, Teramo, and Ascoli Piceno, bridging Lazio, Abruzzo, and the Marche. Created to support the rebirth of the communities of the Laga Mountains, the Monti Gemelli, and the Alto Aterno after the 2016 earthquake, the festival weaves together culture, history, hiking, and community participation in a programme that unfolds over many months of the year.

The 2026 Accumoli stage

In the municipality of Accumoli, in the Province of Rieti (Lazio), the fifth edition of 2026 takes place from June 19 to 21, as part of L'Aquila Italian Capital of Culture 2026 and on the tenth anniversary of the earthquake that struck the area so hard in 2016. Three days designed as a journey of memory and cultural reconstruction, focusing on the communities that continue to inhabit these lands.

The programme

• Friday, June 19 — at Castello della Monica in Teramo, 6:00 PM, presentation of the book Lettera di un Camminatore Eretico by Paolo Piacentini (Pacini Editore), a story of the rebirth of the trails between the Sibillini and Laga mountains.
• Saturday, June 20 — at the "Agostino Cappello" school in Accumoli, a day dedicated to the figure of Salvatore Tommasi, a physician, scientist, and patriot from Accumoli, with contributions from professors Ferdinando Di Orio, Mauro Bologna, Paolo Muzi, and Renzo Colucci, covering medicine, positivist philosophy, and Risorgimento history.
• Sunday, June 21 — in the hamlets of Cassino and Terracino, meetings with the communities of the areas most affected by the earthquake, to listen to those who chose to stay and start over.

Memory, community, and walking

Promoted by the associations Borghi e Sentieri della Laga OdV and FederTrek Escursionismo e Ambiente Aps, the festival is much more than a simple series of events: it is a social cohesion project recognized by ASviS as a best practice for the 2030 Agenda. In Accumoli, walking becomes a tool for understanding the territory, while meetings, presentations, and testimonies give a voice back to a wounded but vibrant Apennine region, capable of transforming the memory of the earthquake into a narrative of identity and future.

Why attend

Those arriving in Accumoli during these days will not find a festival built for mass tourism, but an authentic experience: stone villages, the panoramas of the Gran Sasso and Laga Mountains National Park, pastoral traditions, and a community that welcomes with generosity. It is an opportunity to understand up close what it means to rebuild not just houses, but the bonds and culture of a territory.