ViviamoCilento

A festival that slows down time

ViviamoCilento is the slow festival of music, trails, and flavors that brings Acciaroli, the seaside hamlet of the Municipality of Pollica in the province of Salerno, to life every September in the heart of Campania. Created to showcase Cilento through its slow rhythms, it combines concerts, talks, artistic performances, excursions, and tastings into a single three-day choral narrative.

The slogan chosen for recent editions, "the right time is slow," perfectly captures the event's spirit: not a packed schedule of events to rush through, but a different way of experiencing a place, between the port, the village alleys, and the sea of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park. This formula has made the festival one of the most recognizable cultural events in Southern Italy at the end of summer.

Concerts at the Arena del Mare

The musical heart of ViviamoCilento is the Arena del Mare, the stage set up on the port of Acciaroli, accompanied by the Isolotto sul Porto, which hosts more intimate formats featuring music and words. Over the years, the festival has brought top names from the Italian scene to Cilento: Vinicio Capossela, Piero Pelù, Alessandro Mannarino, and Ghemon in the 2023 edition; Paola Turci with Gino Castaldo, Malika Ayane, PIF, Fast Animals and Slow Kids, and Colapesce Dimartino in 2024; Simona Molinari, Tosca, Max Gazzè, and Diodato in 2025.

Alongside the concerts, there are Momenti Blu, surprise artistic performances that appear suddenly in the village streets, and dialogue formats like "Le Parole e il Mare" (Words and the Sea), which brings together voices from theater, comedy, and scientific outreach. The artistic direction has been entrusted over the years to various curators, including music journalist Massimo Cotto.

CiboCilento and the Mediterranean Diet

Pollica is one of the symbolic places of the Mediterranean diet, and the festival makes it a cornerstone of the program. The CiboCilento – Slow Taste area offers traditional Cilento dishes prepared with locally sourced products, presented directly by local operators from Acciaroli, Pollica, and Cannicchio.

• Sensory tastings of typical Cilento products
• "Slow note" aperitifs at sunset
• Traditional cuisine with traceable ingredients
• Talks on food, health, and sustainability

Trails, sea, and family activities

ViviamoCilento is not limited to the stage. The program includes excursions along the trails connecting the coast to the inland villages, creative workshops, and playful activities for children, designed so that families can enjoy the festival without rushing. The choice of September is no coincidence: the sea is still warm, the beaches empty out, and the village returns to a more intimate dimension.

Blu Acciaroli and the Point of Blue

The 2025 edition introduced Blu Acciaroli, an urban color scheme created to accompany the festival's visual identity and inspired by the light of the blue hour, and the Point of Blue, three permanent corten steel artistic installations located in the port. A mark that remains even when the festival ends, linking the event to the village landscape.

Pollica, Acciaroli, and Cilento

Acciaroli is one of the most well-known locations on the Cilento coast, famous for its clear sea and the longevity of its inhabitants, a topic that has attracted researchers from all over the world. The Municipality of Pollica, the event's promoter, has built a territorial promotion project around ViviamoCilento that focuses on sustainable tourism and quality of life rather than mass numbers. For those visiting Campania at the end of summer, the festival is also an excellent opportunity to discover the rest of the area: the castle of Pollica, the village of Pioppi with the Living Sea Museum, the coves along the coast, and the trails of the National Park climbing toward Monte Stella.