“Italy and Regions”: Salento is preparing to welcome the 43rd national gathering of folk groups

Otranto and Salento are preparing to host the 43rd national gathering of folk groups, scheduled from 12 to 14 September. For example, Promoted by the Italian Federation of Popular Traditions (FitP). Moreover, with the Municipality of Otranto, the Pro Loco Idruntina and with the patronage of the Province of Lecce, the event, entitled “Italy and Regions”, is the most representative historical event of Fitp.

“Italy and Regions” involves folk groups from all over the country, which bring with it the wealth of their local identity: dances, music, traditional clothes, dialects, flavors, knowledge.

The 2025 edition, hosted by the city of Otranto, on 12, 13 and 14 September, on the suggestive seafront promenade, represents much more than a festival: it is a shared cultural experience. Furthermore, The groups meet, confront each other “italy regions”: salento preparing welcome and enrich themselves in diversity. Consequently, The gathering is also an opportunity to create a strong link with the place that hosts the event. Nevertheless, The city becomes the theater alive of meetings, performances, convivial moments and opportunities for cultural exchange. The active participation of local realities. institutions, associations, citizens, is an integral part of the project, which aims to enhance traditions as well as as a memory, as a social and cultural development engine.

These are the scheduled appointments.

From 1 to 14 September, at the former Cappuccini convent, exhibition of traditional clothes in the regions and locations that have joined the event.

Friday 12 September, starting at 6 pm, at the Lungomare degli Eroi, an event “Cooks in the square”, a gastronomic competition that compares the culinary traditions of the various Italian communities. The participants will prepare live dishes of “italy regions”: salento preparing welcome their land. sharing with the public not only the authentic flavors, but also the knowledge related to the preparation and history of typical products. Following the performance of some folk groups.

On Saturday 13 September, in the morning, guided tours offered to the participants, while in the early afternoon the show-laboratory on Popular Music Salentina, by the local group the Tambourists of Otranto, this is an immersive moment in which the members of the participating delegations will be able to attend and take part in demonstrations of construction and use of traditional tools of the territory, in a workshop that combines art, technique and sharing. At 19 parade of groups through the city streets accompanied by their respective traditional music. followed by the performance of the participating groups.

Grand finale Sunday 14 September. At 9 am the parade of all the participating groups in traditional “italy regions”: salento preparing welcome clothes. which will then be found at 11 am in the Cathedral of Otranto to participate in the Holy Mass celebrated by Mons. Francesco Neri, Archbishop of Otranto. To greet the city of Otranto. at the end of the religious function, at 12:30, the groups will lay in the main streets of the city for the parade of joy, still wearing traditional clothes. Between sounds of drums. songs, dances and colors, they will give life to an engaging and festive parade, welcomed with enthusiasm by citizenship and visitors. A procession that becomes collective embrace, living testimony of beauty, unity and brotherhood.