Saint Cross Festival of Marnate

A tradition over sixty years old

The Saint Cross Festival is the most anticipated event of the year in Marnate, a municipality in the Alto Milanese area of the Province of Varese, bordering the industrious Lombardy region that overlooks the Olona river. Born in the 1960s, the festival is much more than a town celebration: it is a collective ritual that intertwines devotion to the Holy Cross with the pride of belonging to a community, a sentiment that the people of Marnate summarize with the dialectal expression vess de Marnà, to be from Marnate.

Heart of the festival: the Festival Area

For five days, the Viale Lombardia Festival Area becomes the town's living room. The Pro Loco's food stalls offer traditional Lombard cuisine, while the evenings come alive with live music, DJ sets, and dancing ranging from 90s and 2000s hits to Latin sounds. There is also space dedicated to sports, with amateur tournaments and competitions, and the traditional cycling event that attracts enthusiasts from all over the region.

Faith, families, and community

The religious dimension remains the common thread: celebrations take place in the Parish Church of Sant'Ilario, keeping alive the link between the festival and its original meaning. Sunday is dedicated to families, with creative workshops, games, dance performances, and activities designed for children, such as the little firefighters' academy. The festival traditionally concludes with a fireworks display that lights up the Marnate sky.

The soul of the Pro Loco

Behind the organization is the voluntary work of the Pro Loco Marnate, which involves dozens of people of all ages each year. It is this network of volunteers that makes possible an event that, edition after edition, continues to renew itself without losing its popular and family-friendly identity.