The Nino Festival

A Pig Festival That Thinks (and Provokes)

La Festa del Nino is much more than a food festival: it is an event that has animated the heart of winter for years in Sant'Andrea di Suasa, a hamlet of the Municipality of Mondavio, in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino. Organized by the Associazione Pro Suasa, it takes place in mid-January coinciding with the feast of Saint Anthony Abbot, protector of animals, and revolves around the "nino" — the pig in the local dialect — the true protagonist of rural tradition and Marche charcuterie.

The Theme That Changes Every Year

What makes this festival unique is its ability to reinvent itself: each edition is built around a deliberately provocative theme, capable of transforming a village festival into a small laboratory of ideas. Over the years, the titles have played with current events and pop culture, and the 2026 edition carries the slogan "Pearls to the Swine", an ironic and sharp reflection on the growing gap between the real value of food and its spectacularization, in open polemic with "food porn".

What to Find in the Village

For two days, the historic village is filled with markets for typical products, food stalls, street food, and a maialoteca (pig deli) where you can taste cured meats and craft beers. The program alternates convivial moments with cultural ones: guided tastings, debates, conferences, exhibitions, trekking in the surrounding hills, and entertainment for children. The heart of the festival remains the traditional charcuterie dishes, from porchetta to local cured meats, served in heated tents.

The Tombola del Nino

The opening is always entrusted to the Tombola del Nino, a popular evening event held at the PalaNino with food and wine prizes, sweets, chestnuts, mulled wine, and music: an opening ritual that brings the entire community together before the weekend of celebration.

Between the Marche and Roman Suasa

The setting is that of the territory of the ancient Roman city of Suasa, now an archaeological park, and the rolling hills of the Pesaro hinterland. The Festa del Nino is now an anticipated event on the Marche winter calendar, capable of combining the joviality of a village festival with the desire to talk about food with an intelligent and never trivial perspective.