During the month of August, when the Sicilian summer is at its height and the evenings are long, the streets and piazzas of Polizzi Generosa come alive. Animated dramatic performances, concerts, street dancing, folk music, a lively parade and great local food fill the streets of Polizzi for a three day festival: The Festival of the Hazelnut – La Sagra delle Nocciole.

I want to share what this  festival is about and then tell of a past La Sagra delle Nocciole which has stayed etched in my memory.

What happens at this Sicilian Summer festival?

At the heart of the festival is the re-enactment and celebration of traditional Sicilian village life as lived a century or so ago. It is re- enacted theatrically by the enthusiastic young of the village. And, the festival also honours Polizzi’s delicious hazelnut: grown and harvested for centuries in the area and prized for its sweetness.

For the week before, the young of the village form teams and with the strict code of construction in hand (set down by the festival’s organisers) they construct wood and stone huts around the edges of Piazza Trinita. It is in these huts that they act out a traditional scene of life from a century ago. The scenes are varied: hand washing in a stone laundry tub, a farmyard of live animals, a blacksmith hammering, a barber working the razor or bread baking in a traditional oven.

It must be faithfully reproduced and be ready by the Saturday: the day of performance and judging. There is a panel of three judges who wander from scene to scene, confer and then hand down first, second and third.

On the Saturday evening charming food stalls, manned by the young, serve local produce: pork and fennel sausage, pannelle, badda beans and hazelnut nougat. By 9 pm a live concert fills the main piazza, Piazza Trinita.

The days are full of energy; locals wander the streets folk dancing and singing and the doors of the village are wide open. The museums and all the churches silently welcome visitors to view the art treasures within.

On the Sunday evening invited international and national professional dance troupes, singers and musicians entertain the village after a lively street parade where fresh hazelnuts are handed to the people. It is pure spectacle and the town watches.

I am not in Polizzi for this year’s festival but I want to share something of a past festival:

Polizzi, August 2010- the second day of the festival, late on the Sunday

I was on the iron balcony of Palazzo Notar Nicchi  overlooking Via Garibaldi, Polizzi's main street, when in the distance I heard the dynamic sounds of the village band and the even rhythm of horses’ hooves striking the cobblestones.

It was close to 5pm that warm, summer Sunday in August 2010 and the streets were lined with people keen to see the animated parade up close. Vibrantly dressed international and national folk groups from Europe, Asia and Latin America, danced, gyrated and walked down the narrow main street with the young performers of Polizzi. The street was strung with coloured streamers and pulsated.

Powerful horses, decorated with ceremonial plumes and tasselled fabric in vibrant reds and yellows, pulled painted Sicilian wooden carts filled with the village’s young dressed in traditional Sicilian costumes. Children stood on shoulders to get a better view of the passing parade. And, I watched from the balcony above.

By 8.30 that evening the professional performers had taken centre stage and entertained a packed Piazza Trinita under open skies.

About an hour and a half later after flamboyant dance routines, singing and theatre parts of Piazza Trinita turned into a 'ballroom' where couples took to the floor for Liscio (folk) dancing. Arm in arm the couples of Polizzi danced under the black ink summer sky.

A Dark Eyed Sicilian Girl Caught My Eye

That Sunday afternoon as I watched the parade from the balcony it was a dark eyed young Sicilian girl in a long skirt of emerald green twirling and dancing who caught my eye. She was from Polizzi and her spirit echoed the enthusiasm of the young who the day before had re- enacted scenes from life 100 years ago.

A Shakespearean Sensibility

One scene has stayed with me from 2010's  festival. It relived the plight of ardent young lovers not allowed to be together due to the social mores of Sicilian life at the time.

Played out in front of a reconstructed village house with a balcony, a young woman was partially hidden by shadow and a young man stood back in the garden, it was full of forbidden love. The impassioned narrator, Shakespearean in presence and voice, spoke in Sicilian. The haunting intensity of the Sicilian language echoed the sadness and yearning of the young lovers.

It was not a balcony scene in Verona but it was good theatre.

This year's 57 th Festival of the Hazelnut falls on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of August.

Salve

Suzanne