The great pizzica festival in the former Augustinian convent
Every year in August, the Salento celebrates its traditional music, the pizzica, with La Notte della Taranta, the largest festival of popular music in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. Born in 1998, it consists of a travelling festival that, for about three weeks, touches dozens of villages in the Salento and Grecìa Salentina, with concerts in the squares, and culminates in the Concertone, the great final concert held in Melpignano, in the large space in front of the former Augustinian convent, a baroque complex, which attracts up to 200,000 people dancing until late at night.
The pizzica is a frenetic, hypnotic dance and music for tambourine, violin, accordion and voice, which originally accompanied the healing rituals of tarantism, the condition of the "tarantate", women who believed they had been bitten by the spider and were cured through dance. Every year a famous musician is called as "maestro concertatore" to arrange the traditional repertoire, leading the Orchestra Popolare La Notte della Taranta, with artists from Italy and the world, from jazz to rock and world music. Melpignano is one of the villages of the Grecìa Salentina, where an ancient Greek dialect, the griko, is still spoken.
Tip: for the Concertone arrive early in the afternoon and use the shuttle buses; it is free. The smaller concerts in the villages are more intimate and authentic.
Where it is
More things to see in Puglia
Where to stay near Melpignano
Tours and activities nearby
Offers from GetYourGuide. Some links are affiliate links: if you book we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.