Sagra del Maialetto Festival

Roasted suckling pig, the pride of Apollosa

Every September, the small town of Apollosa, nestled on the lower slopes of the Taburno massif in the province of Benevento (Campania), transforms for three days into the Sannio capital of roasted suckling pig. The Sagra del Maialetto is the flagship event of the Apollosa Pro Loco and one of the most popular dates on the Sannio food calendar: the recipe for the aromatic suckling pig, slow-roasted with local hillside herbs, is kept by volunteers and has never been made public. It is this very secret, repeated identically year after year, that has built the festival's fame far beyond the provincial borders.

An award-winning festival

The Apollosa event has earned the national «Sagra di Qualità» mark from the Italian National Union of Pro Loco (UNPLI), a recognition awarded to only a few dozen events out of approximately twenty thousand surveyed across Italy. This seal certifies the use of local products, the traceability of raw materials, and high standards of hygiene and management: for a community of this size, it is a significant achievement, accepted by the Pro Loco president Gianpaolo Sarmente alongside the municipal administration. "The board took on the challenge and the registered volunteers did their part," Sarmente explained when commenting on the milestone.

What to eat

The star of the show is naturally the roasted suckling pig, but the festival menu is a small repertoire of Sannio peasant cuisine, all prepared by volunteers in kitchens set up for the occasion:

• Aromatic oven-roasted suckling pig, pork shanks, and fillets
• Hand-rolled fresh egg tagliatelle
• Grill and fry station: grilled meats, sausages, fried specialties
• Local cured meats: prosciutto and capocollo from the area
• Sannio wines: Aglianico del Taburno, Falanghina, Coda di Volpe, as well as draft beer
• Traditional local desserts

Those unable to stay for a full meal can rely on the takeaway service, which is highly popular on Sunday mornings: the suckling pig is packaged and taken home for family lunch.

Under the marquee: dining even in the rain

The organizational formula is one of the reasons for its success. The town sets up a marquee of over 800 square meters, four meters high, with more than a thousand indoor seats: in recent editions, this has reached 1,200-1,500 seats. Mid-September bad weather, which can never be ruled out in the hills, does not disrupt the festival, and the Sunday lunch — by reservation — regularly sells out.

Music, crafts, and village life

The event revolves around a program that occupies the town squares, particularly Piazza Grasso and Piazza Sant'Anna: dance evenings with Italian and Latin American music, folk concerts, folk groups, DJ sets that keep the party going until late, and games for children. Along the streets, craft and local product stalls open, while in recent editions, the Pro Loco has also offered visits to the Ethnographic Museum of the Apollosa Community and local wineries. The festival usually opens with a conference dedicated to the territory: "Quality for Development" and "Guardians of Taste, Guardians of the Territory" were the themes of recent editions, inaugurated with a blessing from the parish priest.

A history with a long break

The Sagra del Maialetto was born in the nineties, on the initiative of a group of locals led by Antonio Lombardi, and grew to become one of the benchmark events in the Benevento area. After a hiatus of nearly seven years, the event was relaunched in 2022 by a new Pro Loco board, which resumed the numbering: the 27th edition took place in September 2025, while the twenty-sixth was held in 2024.

Why it's worth the trip

Apollosa is about ten kilometers from Benevento and is easily reached from all over Campania: the festival is a concrete opportunity to see how a well-organized village feast works, where food is not just a pretext but the result of collective effort. The Apollosa suckling pig, the Taburno wines, and the hospitality of the volunteers capture the gastronomic identity of the Sannio in a single evening, one of the most interesting and least-trodden inland areas of the region.