The Pumpkin Festival, organized by the local Pro Loco, takes place every year in Salzano for two weeks between the months of October and November. This festival, which occupies a covered space of 5,000 square meters, has established itself as one of the most important autumn initiatives in the Terra dei Tiepolo.
It seeks to recover and reintroduce the culture, tradition and gastronomy of the area through a multiplicity of offerings: exhibition of local handicrafts, routes among regional flavors, involvement of children through schools and families, gastronomy with proposals and tastings of quality products, and finally, competitions for the best pumpkins. These contests have now become an established attraction and address the characteristics that this product brings: its color, weight and its strangest shapes that allow them to be used to create “pictures” that attract curiosity and sympathy. This is an appealing approach for a poor vegetable that in this area has become known for its beauty and simplicity.
In this, which is one of the most important Pumpkin Festivals in Italy who is undoubtedly in the spotlight is the gastronomy, thanks to a very large and well-equipped stand that can seat more than one thousand seven hundred people and at which a complete menu based on this precious vegetable can be tasted: from first courses: risotto, ravioli and gnocchi, to desserts with cookies, sweets and cakes.
Thus, in this event, not just one local product is celebrated, but the territory in its entirety, and this is thanks to the exhibition of handicrafts and agri-food products, workshops on pumpkin carving and, above all, what is the real treat of the festival: the pumpkin competitions with prizes. In this fun competition, different categories of pumpkins are awarded, including the smallest, the longest, the heaviest and so on, in a succession of awards and cheerful celebrations. There is also no shortage of entertainment, starting with music and dancing and then continuing with a series of shows ranging from a wide variety of performances to cabaret shows. For children, the Festival also includes celebrations on Halloween night, the day when the pumpkin becomes the world's star.
The multiplicity of initiatives has made this not only the most anticipated event of the year in Salzano, but also one of the main and longest-running autumn events in the area.