Apulia is a land to be experienced and known also through events, festivals and manifestations
Take part in the many events that are organized throughout the seasons in the area. Many events are related to religious traditions, food and wine events, music festivals, theatrical and sports happenings such as the competition of diving from great heights (Red Bull Cliff Diving) in Polignano. On this page you can find the main events not to be missed and a series of useful links to discover all the scheduled activities and better organize your stay!
Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series
One of the most fascinating and adrenaline-pumping sporting events held every year in Polignano a Mare in late September. Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is a diving championship in which athletes dive from a height of 27 meters (3 times the Olympic height) without protection. The athletes’ aerial evolutions are constructed in a completely personal way giving free rein to their imagination.
Info redbull.com/events
La Notte della Taranta
This is a traveling folk music festival held in August, stopping in 16 towns in Salento, featuring world-famous big names and aimed at enhancing traditional music from Salento. Tarantismo is originally a hysterical convulsive phenomenon that was associated with the bite of spiders. It is said that the dragging rhythm of this music was danced to by possessed women until they freed themselves from the spider/demon that plagued them. If until a few decades ago these rites were performed in secret, because they were experienced as a symbol of the backwardness of the poor, peasant South, enslaved to mysterious powers, today these liberation dances are the protagonists of numerous events in many places in Puglia.
Hell in the cave
An evocative show that combines dance, voices, sounds and lights in the spectacular natural setting of the Castellana Caves. A grandiose multimedia staging, capable of embracing the entire natural environment as stage space, to take the audience on an extraordinary adventure into Dante’s Inferno.
Info hellinthecave.it
The Madonna della Bruna
On July 2nd, the people of Matera celebrate the Madonna, called della Bruna, and the harvest.
A succession of sacred and profane that tells the story of the Madonna who appeared to a farmer asking him to take her to Matera to deliver a message to the Bishop.
It is said that, as soon as he received it, he ran to see it but instead found a statue placed on a decorated cart. Since then, the Madonna della Bruna passes through the city every year on a triumphal cart in an act of blessing. The event culminates with the so-called “Strazzo”, when, after placing the Statue of the Virgin in the Cathedral, the cart is attacked and destroyed by the people of Matera in a cathartic act. It is said that whoever manages to recover a piece of a decoration from the cart will have luck on their side.
Info festadellabruna.it
To find out more about events and demonstrations in Puglia:
