Mezzogoro Peanut and Pop Corn Festival

A Festival Born from the Land of the Delta

The Mezzogoro Peanut and Pop Corn Festival is a gastronomic and popular event that takes place every year in June in the hamlet of Mezzogoro, in the Municipality of Codigoro, in the province of Ferrara, in the heart of the Emilia-Romagna Po Delta. The festival celebrates two products that have found fertile ground in these reclaimed lands: peanuts and popcorn corn, unusual crops for Italy but deeply rooted in local agricultural history.

The Mezzogoro peanut is a true local excellence: its seed has been jealously guarded for over half a century by a local farmer, becoming a symbol of a community that has managed to transform a niche product into a source of pride and celebration.

Gastronomy and Local Products

The heart of the festival is the food stall, set up at the former theatre on Via Manzoni 40, where local specialties are offered: dishes based on certified Mezzogoro peanuts, popcorn, risottos prepared with new varieties of Delta rice, fish, meat, and zero-km products, including ice cream. Every evening, the popcorn machine is in operation, a real attraction for young and old.

A Program for All Ages

The Peanut and Pop Corn Festival is not just about gastronomy. The schedule, spread over more than a week, offers a succession of initiatives:

• Mezzogoro Comix with cosplay, comics, manga, and video games, costume contests for adults and children, and guests from the voice acting world;
• Peanut and Pop Corn Grand Prix, a mountain bike and duathloncross race valid for the regional cyclocross championship;
• parades of vintage cars and motorcycles, motor rallies, and dirt track tests;
• concerts, tribute bands, and evenings with DJs, fishing competitions, circus games, and the traditional tombola with a rich prize pool;
• conferences dedicated to Delta agriculture, exhibitions, excursions, and guided tours of the reclaimed landscape.

Mezzogoro and the Po Delta

Visiting the festival is also an opportunity to discover the Ferrara Po Delta, a land of reclamation, canals, and large farms like Bonifiche Ferraresi. Mezzogoro, a small hamlet of Codigoro, preserves the identity of the rural communities of Emilia-Romagna and opens its doors to visitors during the festival with the typical hospitality of the Emilia-Romagna Region.