Sagra di San Giovanni

The patronal festival of Edolo

The Sagra di San Giovanni is the patronal festival of Edolo, a municipality in the upper Valle Camonica in the province of Brescia. It is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, the town's patron saint, and is celebrated every year on the Sunday closest to June 24th, the liturgical date of the saint's nativity.

Markets in the historic centre

The most popular aspect of the sagra is the markets, which invade the streets of the centre: Viale Derna, Via Montegrappa, Via Gelpi and Piazza San Giovanni fill with stalls from the morning, approximately from 8 am to 6 pm. For an entire day, Edolo becomes a large open-air market, a destination for residents and visitors from the surrounding upper valley towns.

The religious dimension

Alongside the public festival, the dimension of faith remains central: the solemn mass and the procession in honour of Saint John the Baptist mark the day, recalling the original meaning of the occasion. It is the moment when the Edolo community gathers around its patron saint, in a tradition that is renewed year after year.

An event in Valle Camonica

The Sagra di San Giovanni is one of the traditional summer events in the Camonica Valley, supported by the Municipality of Edolo. It combines popular devotion with the vitality of the markets, in a balance typical of Italian patronal festivals, where the sacred and the profane coexist on the same day of celebration.