Celebrating community and cuisine: Tradition and change in the Sagre Festival in Italy

Studies of festival in Italy have tended to focus on the expression of group identity. This identity is often linked with the preparation and presentation of traditional foods. Although the community effort involved to organize and participate in large scale festivals is notable, few works have centered on the meanings and symbolism associated with the individuals involved in these events. This study examines a particular festival, the Sagre, in the northern region of Piedmont, Italy and the complexities of the communities and individuals that participate in it.; The Sagre is a fair for some forty villages neighboring the city of Asti to bring their traditions, both gastronomic and agricultural, to the city. It includes the serving of food in addition to a live exhibit of the past: a pageant re-creating the traditional life ways of la campagna, the countryside. The two main attractions of the event, the food and the pageant, both function in expressing and strengthening regional identity in various ways, not to mention the preservation of a nostalgic relationship with the past. Moreover, the festival provides participants with feelings of personal satisfaction, opportunities for social bonding and emotional benefits.; The study of the Sagre also offers insight into the great appeal of the festival and its themes associated with a romanticized presentation of the past. Issues of re-creating the past within the liminal boundaries of festival and the preservation and creation of community identity are examined in a backdrop of globalization and tourism. In an area that is associated with industry, fashion and technology, the Sagre provides a class-bending display of the regional identity while allowing for the individuals involved a connection to the past and a means of expression. Through the use of ethnographic research, the complexities of both group and individual participation emerge in the analysis of this annual event.