Montoro Cherry Festival

The festival celebrating the Montoro cherry

The Montoro Cherry Festival is the early summer event that the Municipality of Montoro, in the province of Avellino, dedicates to the fruit that best represents this corner of Campania. Every year in June, the Villa Comunale of the Piano district fills with stalls, scents, and music to welcome visitors from Irpinia, the Irno Valley, and the Salerno area. The 2025 edition, the fourteenth, took place on June 14th and 15th, confirming the successful formula: an entire weekend with free admission, built around the cherry and its growers.

Montoro, the land of cherries

The Montoro territory is historically known as the land of cherries: there are about five hundred farms here dedicated to cherry cultivation, and the municipality is part of the production area for the Bracigliano PGI Cherry. Harvesting is still done entirely by hand today, using traditional wooden or aluminum ladders leaned against the branches, a practice passed down through generations. The most typical varieties are the Pagliaccia, with large, reddish-purple fruits and a bittersweet taste, harvested in early June, and the Spernocchia, with a brighter red color and juicy, sweet flesh, which ripens towards the middle of the month. It is no coincidence that the festival falls within this window: the cherries for sale at the stalls come from the orchards surrounding the town, often sold directly by the producers.

The food stalls

The heart of the event remains the table. The food stalls set up in the Villa Comunale offer traditional Irpinian dishes and a long list of preparations featuring the cherry as the star, from desserts to preserves. Alongside the dining areas, you will find markets with two distinct focuses:

• the cherry market, where you can buy freshly picked local varieties directly from local cherry growers;
• stalls featuring crafts and typical local products;
• exhibitions and workshops dedicated to processing the fruit.

In recent editions, the Pro Loco has added daytime activities to the evening program designed to showcase the supply chain: in 2025, for example, the experiential tour The Cherry - From Tree to Jar, hosted at a local farm, guided participants from the plant to the processed product.

The Fairy Tale Train through the fifteen districts

One of the festival's most successful ideas is the Fairy Tale Train, a tourist train that takes visitors around the fifteen districts that make up Montoro. It is a simple yet effective way to discover a municipality born from the merger of two distinct historical centers, which preserves a fabric of villages, churches, and orchards that is difficult to grasp while staying in the main square. The rides are paid, with affordable rates and free entry for children, and in 2025, one of the routes even included lunch at a farm.

Music, shows, and families

The evenings are enlivened by live performances that draw from the Campanian folk repertoire and local associations: in 2025, the stage hosted the Cataldo Canti e Cunti show of songs and stories, a DJ set to close the evening, and a performance by a local dance school. Workshops, games, and dedicated areas are planned for children, making the festival a destination suitable for a family outing rather than just an adult evening.

Who organizes it

The event is organized by the Pro Loco Città di Montoro, which coordinates volunteers, producers, and local associations; the 2025 edition also received support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry. The festival is part of the calendar of events promoted in Irpinia by the Pro Loco network and is highlighted every year by the Avellino Province tourism circuit.

When and why to go

Those visiting Irpinia in June will find this festival a tangible opportunity to taste a seasonal product in the place where it is grown, just a few kilometers from Avellino and the motorway exit connecting Salerno to Avellino. Admission to the event is traditionally free, and the weekend format allows you to combine the visit with a walk through the hilly districts of the Municipality of Montoro.