Olive Festival in Pollina

The story

In 2026 the Sagra dell'Ulivo, the olive festival of Finale, the seaside district of Pollina where most of the municipality's residents now live, celebrates its 50th edition. It takes place in November, when the olive harvest begins on the hills between the Madonie mountains and the Tyrrhenian Sea, and for half a century it has combined tastings, folk music and a parade through the streets. As early as 2014, visitors described more than twenty stalls devoted to olives and olive oil, and a parade with draft horses and folk groups as the highlight.

The ritual at the heart of the festival takes place on Sunday morning in the church of Maria Santissima della Lettera: during Mass, the olive saplings that the village gives to babies born over the past year are blessed, a custom also documented in exhibitions by local teacher Giacomo Di Marco. The festival is tied to real trees too: guided walks among the centuries-old olive trees of Contrada Celsito, with a taste of new-season oil, and the work of pupils from the Pollina-San Mauro Castelverde school, who look after olive trees together with Sicily's regional rural development department. In 2024 the festival was backed by the regional agriculture department.

For the 50th anniversary the program looks both back and forward: a photo exhibition on fifty years of the festival in the Torre del Marchese, a public meeting on its history, the "Alivi sona" brass band gathering and, on Sunday, a parade with I Saracini from Finale, Gazzara from Caltavuturo and I Peddaroti from Reggio Calabria. The finale is a filoncino loaf from the Panificio Nicolosi 1960 bakery, billed as the longest in the world, and an anniversary cake.

Schedule

• 6 November 2026, at 17:30 Torre del Marchese: opening of the photo exhibition "50 anni di sagra" (50 years of the festival), curated by Giacomo Di Marco
• 6 November 2026, at 21:00 Auditorium Samuel Sferruzza: public meeting "Il filo del tempo: Finale e la sua sagra" on the village and its festival
• 7 November 2026, at 10:00 Contrada Celsito: "Alla scoperta dei monumenti della natura", a guided walk among natural monuments with a small free tasting (booking required)
• 7 November 2026, at 16:00 Piazzale Torre: "Alivi sona – La super banda 150", a gathering of local brass bands with majorettes and the Saracini's young folk group
• 7 November 2026, at 17:00 Parco Urbano car park: the tasting stalls open, staying open until the end of the evening
• 8 November 2026, at 09:00 The Apollonia town band parades through the streets
• 8 November 2026, at 10:30 Church of Maria SS. della Lettera: Mass with the blessing of olive saplings, presented to the babies born this year, with folk songs by the Saracini association
• 8 November 2026, at 13:00 Parco Urbano car park: free tasting of olive cunzate, Sicilian dressed olives; the food stalls open at 12:00
• 8 November 2026, at 15:30 The parade sets off from the Parco Urbano through the village, with the folk groups I Saracini (Finale), Gazzara (Caltavuturo) and I Peddaroti (Reggio Calabria)
• 8 November 2026, at 18:00 Parco Urbano: "the world's longest filoncino" bread loaf by the Panificio Nicolosi 1960 bakery, followed at 18:30 by the 50th-anniversary cake

What to eat

The stars are olive cunzate, olives dressed the Sicilian way, handed out free at Sunday lunchtime. At the tasting stalls in the Parco Urbano, open Saturday from 17:00 and Sunday from 12:00, you can try local products made with olives and olive oil.

Bread is the festival's other symbol: an extra-long filoncino baked for the occasion by a village bakery, best eaten with extra virgin olive oil from the new harvest. For the 50th edition there's also a celebration cake.

Getting there

Finale is Pollina's seaside district: on the A20 Palermo-Messina motorway, take the Castelbuono-Pollina exit. By train, the station is Pollina-San Mauro Castelverde on the Palermo-Messina line; the nearest airport is Palermo, about 130 km away.

How to get to Pollina: full guide