San Rocco Festival

A September festival in the heart of Alta Irpinia

The San Rocco Festival is one of the most deeply felt devotional events in the calendar of Caposele, a municipality in the province of Avellino, Campania. It is celebrated in September, as the Irpinian summer draws to a close and the village gathers in its squares for one final collective moment before autumn. In 2025, the celebrations in honor of the saint were held on September 10, starting at 9:00 PM, as indicated in the official 'Estate Caposelese' program published by the Sistema Irpinia portal of the Province of Avellino.

San Rocco, the pilgrim saint

San Rocco of Montpellier is one of the most popular figures in southern devotion: a pilgrim and miracle worker, traditionally invoked as a protector against epidemics and contagion. Throughout Irpinia, his feast day marks the transition between summer and early autumn, and in Caposele, it is rooted in a long-standing religious tradition, further fueled by the presence of the Sanctuary of San Gerardo Maiella in the Materdomini district, one of the most frequented pilgrimage sites in Southern Italy.

Inside the Estate Caposelese

The San Rocco festivities are not an isolated event: they are part of the Estate Caposelese program, a series of events that the Municipality of Caposele organizes every year in collaboration with the Pro Loco, local associations, businesses, and residents. In the 2025 edition, the program ran from July 26 to September 10, spread across the town center and the Materdomini district, featuring:

• open-air concerts and musical evenings;
• gastronomic events highlighting typical Irpinian products;
• tournaments and sporting events;
• theatrical performances and cultural initiatives;
• religious celebrations and devotional feasts, including the one dedicated to San Rocco.

The saint's feast, placed at the end of the calendar, serves as a symbolic closing of the Caposele summer.

The atmosphere of the festival

As with most patronal and devotional festivals in Irpinia, the core of the day remains traditional: the liturgical moment, the community gathering in the squares, the illuminations, and the evening entertainment. It is a village festival in the most authentic sense of the term, where those who have emigrated return, families reunite, and younger generations mingle with the elderly. It is not an event built for mass tourism: precisely for this reason, it retains a genuine character, very close to the real life of the village.

Caposele, water and memory

Caposele is best known for the springs of the Sele river, which feed the Apulian aqueduct, and for the Oasi Sorgenti del Sele: a water heritage that has shaped the village's identity and made it a landmark of Alta Irpinia. The territory, deeply scarred by the 1980 earthquake and rebuilt with tenacity, today offers a landscape of gentle mountains, woods, and trails, a short distance from Monte Paflagone and the peaks of the Picentini mountains. A visit during the festival is also an opportunity to discover the Materdomini sanctuary, the springs, and the local cuisine, featuring homemade pasta, meats, cheeses, and Irpinian wines.

2026 Edition

As of the writing of this entry, the 2026 festival program has not yet been published and no official dates have been released. The most recent and verifiable reference remains the event held on September 10, 2025. Updated information is usually communicated by the Municipality of Caposele and the Pro Loco in the weeks leading up to the event, along with the overall 'Estate Caposelese' schedule.