May Day at the Convent

A music festival in a reborn village

May Day at the Convent is the live music event that brings Gagliano Aterno to life every May 1st. This small village, home to just a few hundred people, lies at the foot of Mount Sirente in the Subequana Valley, in the province of L'Aquila. The setting is the garden of the Santa Chiara Convent, an ancient medieval complex of the Poor Clares that has returned to the heart of village life: here, from noon until midnight, a series of concerts and musical performances fill the long, open-air day.

The Santa Chiara Convent and the "ritornanti"

The Santa Chiara Convent is one of the most significant Poor Clare monasteries in Abruzzo, built between the 13th and 14th centuries and later expanded with a porticoed cloister. Rendered unusable by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, it underwent an extensive restoration and "immaterial reconstruction" project. Today, it houses municipal offices, coworking spaces, a conference hall, and facilities dedicated to hospitality and culture. This journey is linked to the "Ritornanti al Convento" project, a regeneration and repopulation initiative that has brought new residents to the village and was recognized in 2025 with a European New European Bauhaus award for small municipalities.

A day of live music

May Day at the Convent translates the spirit of this community into a celebration: a musical program spread across the entire day, from afternoon until night, weaving together concerts, meetings, and conviviality in the convent garden. It is a popular, inclusive festival designed for locals, returners, and visitors alike, where music becomes an opportunity to gather in one of the most evocative landscapes of the Abruzzo Apennines, between the Sirente mountain and the Subequana Valley.

Gagliano Aterno and the Subequana Valley

Located in the Abruzzo region, within the Municipality of Gagliano Aterno, the village is dominated by its medieval castle and surrounded by the beech forests of the Sirente-Velino Park. Its rebirth—driven by research, participation, and heritage recovery—has made Gagliano Aterno a national case study in the regeneration of small inland towns. May Day at the Convent is its symbolic festival, the moment when the village opens its doors to place music and community at the center.