Spring Festival

A festival that opens the village to spring

With the arrival of the warmer season, the municipality of San Marco dei Cavoti, in the province of Benevento, dedicates an entire weekend to bringing its historic center to life for visitors. The Spring Festival is not a traditional food festival built around a single dish: it is an 'open village' concept where shops, artisan workshops, museums, restaurants, and trails work together as a single, widespread itinerary. Visitors find the town buzzing from morning to evening, with tasting stops, guided tours, and live music scattered across squares and alleys.

Tastings and nougat workshops

The gastronomic heart of the event is the confectionery production that has made San Marco dei Cavoti famous throughout Italy: torrone (nougat) and especially croccantino—caramelized almonds and hazelnuts coated in dark chocolate, crafted here since the late 19th century. During the festival, local companies open their workshops to welcome visitors and explain the production process; visits are usually by reservation, as the production spaces are intimate. Alongside the sweets, other products from the Sannio region are featured at tasting stops along the route and on the menus of local restaurants, which highlight the specialties of Benevento's mountain cuisine for the occasion.

Walks, nature, and music

The hiking component is one of the festival's highlights. San Marco dei Cavoti sits at an altitude of approximately 695 meters, overlooking the Fortore valleys, and the municipal territory is defined by oak and beech forests. Guided walks and trekking routes offered during the weekend allow visitors to explore these areas with a guide during a season when the blooming landscape is particularly pleasant. The same area is home to the Ripa Waterfall on the Tammarecchia stream, a destination for hikes off the beaten path. Upon returning to the village, the day continues with live concerts in the squares and initiatives dedicated to families and children.

Museums and historic heritage

The Spring Festival is also an opportunity to visit the village's heritage, which remains accessible throughout the event. The Museum of Tower Clocks, established in 1997 and housed for years in a building within the historic complex, preserves dozens of tower clock mechanisms recovered from churches and civic towers, some of which are very ancient—a rare museum in the European landscape. The MODERN museum, opened in 2016, showcases 20th-century advertising and commerce across approximately 500 square meters. Among the religious architecture, the 14th-century Church of Maria SS. del Carmine and the Church of San Marco Evangelista, dedicated to the patron saint, stand out. Gates and traces of the 14th-century fortifications remain visible, dating back to when the village was populated—according to local tradition—by Provençal settlers known as 'gavots', from which the name Cavoti is said to derive.

Why it's worth the trip

• Free admission to outdoor initiatives and the historic center route.
• Visits to confectionery workshops, usually by reservation.
• Guided walks and trekking in the woods around the village.
• Open museums, artisan workshops, and local shops.
• Activities for children and live music in the squares.
• Special offers from restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and local accommodations.

An event in the Sannio calendar

In the Campania Region event calendar, the Spring Festival holds a special place: it arrives at a time, the end of winter, when the Benevento hinterland sees little tourism, and it proposes a slow-paced exploration of the village based on the activities that thrive there year-round. It serves as a spring counterpoint to the town's most famous event, the Torrone and Croccantino Festival, which takes place in December.

Towards the 2026 edition

At the time of writing, no official dates have been published for the 2026 edition of the Spring Festival. The 2025 edition took place on Saturday, March 29th, and Sunday, March 30th, from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM; the reference period remains the end of March. To find out the final dates and program, it is best to follow the channels of the Pro Loco San Marco dei Cavoti and official municipal communications.