Lithos – National Festival of Folk, Acoustic, and Contemporary Music

Lithos, the folk music that leaves its mark in Ferla

Lithos – National Festival of Folk, Acoustic, and Contemporary Music is one of the longest-running and most beloved events in Eastern Sicily dedicated to folk music and its modern influences. The festival takes place every year in Ferla, a small Baroque village in the Iblei Mountains in the province of Syracuse, in the heart of the Sicily Region, transforming the village's stone streets into a grand open-air stage for several evenings in September.

The Scalinata dei Cappuccini, a stage of stone

The heart of the festival is the Scalinata dei Cappuccini, the ancient staircase of the former convent that gives the festival its name: lithos, from Greek, means "stone." On these steps, year after year, artists and audiences share an intimate and evocative space, where the natural acoustics and the atmosphere of the village amplify the emotion of live music. It is a symbolic place that the community of Ferla has brought to life, turning it into a cultural landmark for the entire Iblei territory.

A project by Carlo Muratori

Born from an idea by the Syracuse-born singer-songwriter Carlo Muratori, who has served as artistic director since the first edition in the summer of 2000, Lithos is much more than just a concert series. It is a journey of listening and storytelling: each edition dedicates space to the stories of men and women, of lands and peoples, because folk music is born from their very experiences. Over the years, the festival has hosted great names in world music and Italian singer-songwriter music, alongside emerging young talents and local choral projects.

Between tradition and modernity

The festival weaves the repertoire of Mediterranean tradition with acoustic and contemporary languages: tarantellas, folk songs, original ballads, and sounds of the South engage in a curated and always engaging program. Lithos is a collective ritual, a shared memory that has become an identity for Ferla: an appointment that draws enthusiasts and curious visitors from all over Sicily every September.

Ferla and the Iblei Mountains

Visiting Lithos is also an opportunity to discover Ferla, one of the most evocative villages in the Iblei Mountains, just a few kilometers from the Pantalica Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Amidst Baroque churches, stone alleys, and natural vistas, the festival fits into a context where landscape, history, and folk culture merge into an authentic experience in the heart of the province of Syracuse.