San Rocco and Santa Maria Assunta Festival in Vasanello

The mid-August feast of the co-patron saints in the Viterbo Tuscia region

In mid-August, Vasanello, a village in the Agro Falisco area of the Viterbo province, celebrates its co-patron saints: Santa Maria Assunta, honored on August 15th, and San Rocco, whose day falls on the 16th. The festivities are traditionally concentrated between August 14th and 16th—with editions in the past extending to the 17th—transforming the historic center into a large open-air stage, spanning Piazza della Repubblica and the village streets. It is the most anticipated event of the Vasanello summer, bringing emigrants back home and filling the village with families, music, and the scents of a local festival.

The class committees: a tradition that is a pact between generations

The most fascinating aspect of the festival is its organizational model. Since 1984, when it fell to the class of 1945 to inaugurate the formula with the feast of San Rocco, the festivities have been entrusted each year to the committee of peers turning forty: the so-called classe. Members self-tax with a freely established quota and, for an entire year, organize the town's major celebrations—the feast of the patron saint San Lanno in May and the feast of San Rocco and Santa Maria Assunta at Ferragosto—in addition to initiatives like the Focarone of the Ascension, the Corpus Domini Flower Festival, and Christmas illuminations. In 2025, the baton was held by the Class of 1985, which officially passed it to the Class of 1986 in May 2026, who are in charge of the current year's festivities. The handover, celebrated publicly in the square, has become a ritual within the ritual.

Processions, brass bands, and devotion

The religious heart of the festival is the solemn procession through the village streets, accompanied by the "G. Porri" brass band of Vasanello, with masses celebrated on the days of the co-patron saints. The Romanesque church of Santa Maria Assunta, one of the village's jewels, serves as the spiritual reference point for the celebrations. The opening of the festivities is traditionally announced by the thunderous sound of fireworks at noon.

Concerts in the square, games, and tombola

Alongside the devotion, there is great popular entertainment: every evening features free concerts in Piazza della Repubblica, with ballroom orchestras, tribute bands, and national guests. Over the years, names such as Iva Zanicchi (2005) and Franco Califano (2008) have graced the Vasanello stage, alongside magic shows like that of Andrea Paris in 2023. The typical program includes card tournaments (briscola and tressette), youth soccer tournaments, children's entertainment, the Ferragosto watermelon party offered by the committee, the highly popular tombola with a prize pool of 1,500 euros, and, as a closing act, the fireworks display that illuminates the village sky.

A village to discover

The festival is also an opportunity to visit Vasanello, a village known for its ceramics tradition and its medieval historic center overlooking the Tiber Valley, just a stone's throw from Orte. The Municipality of Vasanello sponsors the festivities, which represent one of the most genuine examples of a grassroots patronal feast in the Viterbo Province and the Lazio Region, where the entire community—through the 'classes'—takes care of its own traditions.

Essential information

• When: Around Ferragosto, traditionally from August 14th to 16th.
• Where: Piazza della Repubblica and the streets of the historic center of Vasanello (VT).
• Admission: Free for all events in the square.
• Organization: Committee of the forty-year-olds, with the patronage of the Municipality.