Museo in Festa

A village telling its story

Museo in Festa is the most anticipated summer evening in Morigerati, a small town in the province of Salerno overlooking the Bussento Valley in lower Cilento. For one night in mid-August, the stone houses, stairways, and alleys of the historic center become the stage for a collective narrative: the peasant culture of Cilento does not remain confined within museum display cases, but spills out into the streets in the form of food, traditions, music, and shared memory.

The Ethnographic Museum of Peasant Civilization

The heart of the event is the "Clorinda and Modestina Florenzano" Ethnographic Museum of Peasant Civilization, located on Via Granatelli. Founded in 1976 from the passion of the Florenzano sisters, who patiently collected objects of daily life from the valley's villages, it has become a public museum of the Municipality of Morigerati and is now one of the most renowned ethnographic museums in Campania. It preserves hundreds of tools, utensils, and audiovisual documents that recount field work, weaving, traditional peasant cuisine, and the rituals of the agricultural calendar between the late 19th century and the 1960s.

During Museo in Festa, the halls remain open to the public from late afternoon: the visit is not just a side event, but the first act of the evening, providing context for everything that follows.

The food and wine trail

After the museum, the event moves to the streets. The food and wine trail winds through the main square, the church area, the small square of San Rocco, and the village alleys, ending in the Piano la Porta area. The stalls are managed by the local men and women, often in collaboration with local farms, offering the Cilento cuisine of festive occasions:

• lagane e ceci, the signature dish of the Cilento tradition;
• handmade cavatelli;
• frittula di maiale e patani, local cured meats, and sausage sandwiches;
• friselle, figs, and traditional desserts;
• amaro Radici, sciarada, and other local artisanal liqueurs.

Folk music in the square

The evening concludes with a concert in the square dedicated to the folk music of Southern Italy. Over the years, the event has hosted groups and performers beloved by the southern public: in 2025, for the 21st edition, it was the turn of Mimmo Cavallaro, one of the most appreciated interpreters of Italian folk music, while in previous editions the festival concluded with the sounds of the bottari's barrels and scythes. Tarantellas, drums, and traditional songs keep the square dancing until late at night.

An event born in 2003

Museo in Festa was born in 2003 with the goal of promoting three of the village's assets together: the ethnographic museum, the historic center, and local gastronomy. Twenty-one editions later, it remains a deeply identity-driven event, capable of drawing emigrants, families, and visitors from all over the Gulf of Policastro back to Morigerati. After a break in 2024, the festival returned on August 14, 2025, with a very large turnout.

Morigerati, between the Cilento Park and the Bussento Oasis

Those who arrive for the festival find much more than just an evening: Morigerati is part of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park and is famous for the WWF Grotte del Bussento Oasis, where the river re-emerges from underground in a wooded gorge just a few minutes' walk from the village. The town, with its clustered houses and viewpoints over the valley, is considered one of the best-preserved villages in lower Cilento and is easily explored on foot.

2026 Edition

As of the writing of this guide, the Municipality of Morigerati has not yet published the dates and program for the 2026 edition. Historically, the event falls around Ferragosto (mid-August): it is advisable to check for updates on the official municipal channels before traveling.