Pasta and Beans and Corn Festival

A festival born from a pot of pasta and beans

The Pasta and Beans and Corn Festival takes place every year in Trivio, a hamlet of the municipality of Castel San Giorgio, in the province of Salerno, nestled in the heart of the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese area, just a few kilometers from the Sarno Valley. The event is organized by the Associazione San Michele Arcangelo Trivio and has its roots in the early nineties: it all began with a massive pot of pasta and beans prepared one summer evening to keep the local youth constructively occupied. From that impromptu dinner, a festival was born that has now surpassed thirty-five editions and is widely recognized as the longest-running in the region.

Two signature dishes: pasta and beans and corn

The heart of the festival is peasant cuisine, which managed to create hearty meals with just a few simple ingredients. The pasta and beans are prepared with lard, garlic, and rosemary and served hot and generous; meanwhile, the corn is roasted over open-air grills, filling the evenings with an unmistakable rustic sweetness. These two iconic foods from different seasons meet here in a single menu.

• Classic pasta and beans, also available in a tomato-based version
• Pasta and beans with mussels, a popular seafood variation
• Pennette pasta with 'corna dei signori' beans
• Bean stew with sausage and escarole and beans
• Boiled or grilled corn, fried cornmeal, and small omelets
• Sandwiches with sausage and potatoes, eggplant, or traditional Salernitan spleen
• Local wine, peaches, babà, sfogliatelle, and traditional desserts

Folk music, dancing, and activities for children

The evenings in Trivio are about more than just dining: the square comes alive with folk songs and dances, live performances, and entertainment carefully selected by the association to keep pace with the times without betraying the festival's identity. There are also dedicated areas for children and teenagers, who fill the square every year, along with traditional games: it is a festival designed for families, where multiple generations sit at the same table.

Numbers and recognition

The organizational machine is impressive for such a small village: capacity has grown from about 1,200 seats in previous years to over 2,000 covers more recently, with two or three seatings per evening and an estimated influx of around 3,000 people per day. In 2023, the festival was granted the moral patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry: a recognition that, according to the organizers, makes it the only festival in the province of Salerno to hold such an honor.

When it takes place

The event traditionally falls at the end of August, spanning the transition into September, over four consecutive evenings. The most recent documented editions were held from August 24 to 27, 2023 (33rd edition), from August 29 to September 1, 2024 (34th edition), and from August 28 to 31, 2025 (35th edition). The official dates for the 36th edition have not yet been confirmed by the organizing association: it is best to follow the Associazione San Michele Arcangelo Trivio Facebook page, which is the channel where the program and times are announced.

Castel San Giorgio and the Campania festival scene

Castel San Giorgio is a municipality of about 13,000 inhabitants in Campania, nestled between the Lattari Mountains and the Sarno plain, divided into numerous hamlets: in addition to Trivio, these include Lanzara, Torello, Fimiani, Aiello, Castelluccio, and Santa Croce. Each village guards its own festival, so much so that during the same summer period, the nearby hamlet of Fimiani hosts its own festival dedicated to tripe, lagane and chickpeas, and prosciutto. In this mosaic, the Trivio festival represents the most anticipated event: a piece of collective identity where the peasant cuisine of the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese becomes a community story.