Events & culture
La Notte della Taranta: the Salento’s great night of pizzica
Spend a summer evening in a Salento square and you may stumble straight into it: tambourines hammering, a circle of people dancing, a rhythm that gets into your body before you understand it. That’s the pizzica, and its biggest night of the year is the Notte della Taranta.
Notte della Taranta, the essentials
The closing Concertone: a Saturday in late August, Melpignano (free, open-air).
The tour: village nights across the Grecia Salentina through August, from the end of July.
The 2026 edition: the 29th, held on Saturday 22 August and directed by maestro concertatore Ermal Meta on a Mediterranean theme. The dates for 2027, the 30th edition, are not out yet.
What is the pizzica?
The pizzica is the fast, hypnotic folk dance and music of the Salento, driven by the tamburello (frame drum), violin and guitar. It isn’t folklore staged for tourists: through the summer you’ll see it danced for real in village piazzas, in loose circles that anyone can join. Once you’ve felt the drum, you understand why it spread.
From healing rite to festival
The pizzica is the heir of tarantismo, an old healing rite. By popular belief, someone bitten by the taranta, a spider, fell into a torpor that could only be cured by dancing for hours, sometimes days, to sweat the venom out. The tarantati were mostly women, mostly in the summer months of field work. The festival was founded in 1998 to rescue the tradition before it disappeared, an idea of Sergio Blasi, with the musicologist Luigi Chiriatti, and from 2000 it grew into the travelling event it is today.
How the festival works
Through August, the Notte della Taranta moves across the villages of the Grecia Salentina: the pocket of the Salento where Griko, an ancient Greek dialect, still survives, with concerts, dance workshops and open-air nights before the grand finale. The roaming stops take in borghi such as Castrignano dei Greci, Martano, Corigliano d’Otranto with its castle and Carpignano Salentino with its frescoed Byzantine crypt. These earlier village nights are more intimate than the finale, and a lovely way into a corner of the Salento that beach itineraries usually skip.
The Concertone in Melpignano
The climax is the Concertone, a vast free open-air concert in front of Melpignano’s former Convento degli Agostiniani. It falls on a Saturday in late August. The 29th edition took place on Saturday 22 August 2026, directed by Maestro Concertatore Ermal Meta on a Mediterranean theme, backed by the Orchestra Popolare della Notte della Taranta. It draws well over 100,000 people, runs until dawn and is broadcast live on RAI: one of Italy’s great cultural nights, and the country’s largest festival of traditional folk music.
How to experience it
Book a bed very early: late-August dates around Melpignano sell out, so the longer you wait the less choice you’ll have (see where to stay). Don’t go only for the Concertone; the earlier village nights are quieter and just as authentic. Learn a couple of steps, it’s a communal dance and nobody minds a beginner. Base yourself around Lecce or in the Salento, and time it with the rest of your trip using the best time to visit.
Beyond the Taranta
The Taranta is the headline, but the whole Salento summer hums with feste and patron-saint nights. Pair the music with Lecce’s baroque, the Adriatic at Otranto, and the wider list of things to do, and you’ve got a trip with a pulse, not just a postcard.
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Notte della Taranta: FAQ
When is the Notte della Taranta?
The Concertone closes the festival on a Saturday in late August, and the village nights run through the month. The 2026 edition was held on Saturday 22 August in Melpignano, with the tour running from the end of July. The dates for 2027, the 30th edition, have not been announced yet.
Where is the Notte della Taranta held?
The closing concert, the Concertone, is in Melpignano, in the province of Lecce, in front of the former Convento degli Agostiniani. The earlier nights move around the Grecia Salentina villages such as Martano and Corigliano d’Otranto.
Is the Notte della Taranta free?
Yes. The Concertone and the village nights are free, open-air events. You pay only for getting there, parking, and food and drink.
Who directs the Concertone?
A different maestro concertatore each year. The 29th Concertone, in 2026, was directed by Ermal Meta on a Mediterranean theme, backed by the Orchestra Popolare della Notte della Taranta.
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