Piedigrotta 2026: Naples' oldest festival, on until 22 Sept

If you were in Mergellina on Tuesday 8 September and heard firecrackers, it wasn't a football match. It was Piedigrotta, the festival Naples has been celebrating since before the word tourism existed. It's documented as far back as the 15th century as the feast of Santa Maria della Grotta, named after the basilica at the mouth of the Crypta Neapolitana, the Roman tunnel that linked the city to Pozzuoli.

This year the programme lasted a whole week, across church, theatre and square. Here's what happened and, above all, what's still on the calendar until 22 September.

8 September

The religious heart of it is still the Basilica di Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, at piazza Piedigrotta 24. On 8 September it opened with 9am Mass, the midday supplica (a prayer of petition to the Virgin) and the solemn 7pm Mass, led by the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Domenico Battaglia. Free entry, as always. The following Sunday, 13 September, the festival closed in the street with the children's parade in Mergellina at 10.30am and the homage to the Madonna.

Viviani at the Trianon, for a week

At the Teatro Trianon Viviani in piazza Calenda, the 2026-2027 season opened with Raffaele Viviani's "Festa di Piedigrotta", the two-act folk pageant written in 1919. Directed by Nello Mascia, with musical arrangements by Eugenio Bennato. It ran every evening at 9pm from 8 to 12 September, with the final performance on Sunday 13 at 6pm. If you missed it, note the name of the new artistic director, Pierpaolo Sepe: the season he has programmed has only just begun.

The tammorre in Piazza Mercato

On Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September, Piazza Mercato hosted the 24th Notte della Tammorra: two evenings of folk music, tammorre (large frame drums) and dancing, in the square that for centuries was the market and the stage of the lower city. It's the event that reminds everyone each year that the tarantella isn't a postcard, it's something people still play.

What you can still see: Piedigrotta Viva

The most interesting part for anyone arriving now is Piedigrotta Viva, six free evenings of storytelling and song in churches linked to devotion to the Virgin Mary, organised by the Campania Region with Scabec. The first was on 11 September in Marano. These remain:

On stage, stories from Casillo, Morrone and Enza Barra alternate with the voices of Maglione, Rondi, Malapena, Carfora and Marini. Arrive a quarter of an hour early: these are churches, and seats run out.

If after all this you still want live Neapolitan song, the Shows section has the one-hour concert at the Galleria Principe di Napoli: voice and instruments without microphones, every evening.