Maria SS. Addolorata Patronal Feast

The festival that brings the town to a standstill

Every summer, there is a moment when the small village of Poggiorsini is transformed. The streets are adorned with festive lights, the air is filled with the scent of sweets, and the entire community gathers around its patron saint, Maria Santissima Addolorata, whose feast day falls on August 11th. For three days, the smallest municipality in the Bari Metropolitan City—with just over a thousand inhabitants, perched on the Alta Murgia plateau on the border between Puglia and Basilicata—becomes a meeting point for residents, returning emigrants, and curious visitors from neighboring towns.

Faith and popular tradition

The Poggiorsini Patronal Feast has always intertwined two inseparable souls: the religious, marked by liturgical celebrations and the solemn procession of the statue of the Madonna Addolorata through the town center, and the secular, consisting of music, shows, market stalls, and the unmissable artistic illuminations that light up the main street. It is a festival for the people in the truest sense: no tickets, no barriers, just a square open to everyone.

The committee of the forty-year-olds

The most fascinating aspect of this festival is how it is organized. According to a deep-rooted custom, the organization is handled each year by the committee of the forty-year-olds, the local residents who turn forty that year. Together with the parish of Maria SS. Addolorata, they raise funds, hire artists, and oversee every detail, in a passing of the torch that keeps the identity of Poggiorsini alive from generation to generation.

Big names in a small square

Despite the town's small size, the Patronal Feast manages to bring big names from the Italian music and entertainment scene to Piazza Alcide De Gasperi every year, with completely free evening concerts that attract large crowds. This is the successful bet of Poggiorsini: proving that even the smallest of Puglia's towns can host a major three-day event.

A village to discover

The festival is also the perfect opportunity to discover Poggiorsini and its surroundings: listed among the Authentic Villages of Italy and immersed in the Alta Murgia National Park, the town offers rural landscapes, silence, starry skies, and genuine Murgian hospitality. A small corner of authentic Puglia, far from the routes of mass tourism.