Percoca in Wine Festival

A home tradition turned into a town square festival

Percoca in wine is not a restaurant recipe; it is a domestic ritual that has been repeated in Campania for generations. At the end of a meal, you take a percoca—the firm, fragrant, yellow-fleshed peach typical of the Neapolitan countryside—slice it into a glass of red wine, and let it rest for a few minutes. The fruit absorbs the flavor, the wine becomes sweeter, and what remains is a convivial ritual that tastes of summer dinners, courtyards, and family Sundays. In Qualiano, a town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, the Pro Loco decided to bring that ritual out of the home and turn it into a festival.

Since 2022, a staple of the town calendar

The first edition took place in 2022; since then, the event has grown year by year, changing venues as the crowds increased. The 2023 and 2024 editions were held in the intimate Piazzetta De Gasperi, while in 2025 the fourth edition occupied the much larger space of Piazza Gabriele D'Annunzio and Via Roma, in the heart of the town center. The event is organized by Pro Loco Qualiano in collaboration with the Municipal Administration and under the patronage of UNPLI, the National Union of Pro Loco of Italy.

What to eat and drink

The food stalls are set up by local businesses, which bring the best of home cooking to the square for one night. The setup is that of a traditional festival, with affordable prices and generous portions:

• Percoca soaked in wine, the absolute star of the evening, served in a glass according to tradition
• First courses of popular Campanian cuisine, prepared on-site
• Local wines and fresh produce from the area
• Typical gastronomic specialties offered by Qualiano merchants

The music: tammurriate, tarantelle, and pizzica

No Campanian festival is complete without folk music. In Qualiano, the stage has always been entrusted to folk groups from the region: in 2024, the Vienteterra ensemble, one of the most well-known in the Campanian folk scene, performed with a repertoire of tarantella, tammurriata, and pizzica; 2025 featured the group I Carbone, with tambourines and guitars, while the following evening hosted a concert by Napolitudine. The result is always the same: tables empty out and the square fills with people dancing.

Not just peaches: the Traditional Flavors Festival

Starting in 2025, the event expanded to two evenings. The Saturday Percoca in Wine Festival is now followed by the Traditional Flavors Festival on Sunday, dedicated to local Qualiano dishes and also accompanied by live music. This expansion confirms how deeply rooted the initiative has become in the life of the town.

Qualiano and its countryside

Qualiano is located in the area north of Naples, a few kilometers from the Phlegraean Fields and the Domitian coast, in a historically agricultural zone where fruit growing has played a major role for decades. The percoca is one of the symbols of this countryside: a humble, resilient fruit that ripens in mid-summer and, thanks to its compact flesh, is perfect for being immersed in wine without falling apart. Celebrating it in the square means, for the community, recognizing a piece of their own agricultural and culinary identity.

A village-fair atmosphere

Anyone arriving in Qualiano on a September evening will find a stage, chairs, and tables set up outdoors, lights glowing late into the night, entire families sitting and chatting, and children running between the stalls. Admission is free and no reservation is needed: just show up in the square, grab your glass of percoca in wine, and let yourself go to the rhythm of the tambourine. It is the most authentic way the province of Naples knows how to say goodbye to summer.