Return Festival with Polenta Meal
Emigrants return to Vastogirardi between culture and polenta
About Return Festival
A festival for those who return
The Return Festival with Polenta Meal is one of the most cherished events of the summer in Vastogirardi, a village in Alto Molise in the province of Isernia. The event was created to bring together residents and the many returning emigrants who come back to the village in mid-August to reconnect with their roots.
Polenta, an identity product
The gastronomic heart of the festival is corn polenta, an identity dish of the Alto Molise region. The polenta meal becomes a convivial moment that brings the community together around the village's peasant tradition, in an atmosphere of celebration and reunion.
Culture and memory
Alongside gastronomy, the event offers educational activities, cultural debates, and photo exhibitions dedicated to the village's history and the experience of emigration. It is a festival that combines conviviality with reflection on the identity of a community marked, like many in the Molise Apennines, by migratory flows.
Return Festival — edition 2026
The Return Festival with Polenta Meal 2026 is expected in Vastogirardi in mid-August, traditionally around the 20th of the month. The event, listed in the calendar of the Alto Molise MAB Reserve, brings together residents and returning emigrants around corn polenta, the village's identity product.
As per tradition, the polenta meal is accompanied by educational activities, cultural debates, and photo exhibitions dedicated to the village's history, in the province of Isernia. The detailed program with dates and times will be released by the organizers.
Programme Return Festival 2026
The detailed program for the 2026 edition, including the polenta meal, exhibitions, and cultural debates, will be released by the organizers. Program coming soon.
Highlights Return Festival 2026
The polenta meal with corn polenta and the reunion of returning emigrants.
Prices Return Festival 2026
Practical information — Return Festival
How to get there
Vastogirardi is located in Alto Molise, in the province of Isernia, within the MAB Biosphere Reserve of Collemeluccio-Montedimezzo. It can be reached by car from Isernia and from the Agnone area.
Tips
The festival has free admission and takes place in the historic center of the village. The polenta meal is the most anticipated gastronomic moment: it is advisable to follow the Municipality's channels for updated times.
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Where does it take place — Return Festival
Centro storico di Vastogirardi
Centro storico, 86089 Vastogirardi