Grape Festival in Caluso, a fairytale event with mythical echoes, lots of news for the 89th edition

In via Bettoja the street artists, the piole go to the center. Saturday evening of taste, Sunday space for traditions

CALUSO. The Erbaluce Grape Festival, which has reached its 89th edition, scheduled from 11 to 19 September, in the city of wine, is cloaked in history. The date is calculated from the first edition, in 1933, the historians specify, which followed, the year after the edition organized by the newspaper The print. That he transformed it into the first grape harvest festival with an echo that went beyond local borders. It started again in 1948, when it is the Municipality that gives the event its current connotation with the involvement of the groups of the districts and hamlets. For the first time the nymph Albaluce is elected. It was Angiolina Giuliano Albo. A long story that the pro loco, except for the institutional part linked to the Il Grappolo d’oro competition, tells using the documentary “Cinema per le vie di Caluso”: with the shots of Pinin Camosso and Mario Griselli, edited by Videolook .

Echoes of a fairytale party that now bounce back to the present day for a proven script of a return to origins and a reassuring taste of “once upon a time” without pomp. After years of absence, we have also returned to take stock of the wine situation thanks to the conference “Vines & terroir” a resource for the country, organized by the Great Council of the Credenza Vinicola.

The novelty, dictated by security reasons, sees the central via Bettoja reserved only for the performance of street artists, while (at 10 pm) in the Spurgazzi park you can dance with the mobile disco of Gran Paradiso radio. The veje piole (eight, because the Rua district is missing) will instead be concentrated in the area of ​​the quadrilateral of taste (via Roma. Via Alfieri, via Guala, Parco Spurgazzi). After the poison ball tournament “Il boccio”, organized by the Freta district, which kicks off the holidays (from Sunday 11 September), the calendar of the festival comes alive Wednesday 14 with a day of sport. In the Spurgazzi park the sports associations of the area give the opportunity to try the various disciplines and then meet everyone for dinner. And listen to the djset of the four Future Boys. Thursday 15 still good food and music, on the occasion of the dinner dedicated to the districts and hamlets. The soundtrack is from “Showzer disco party”.

Friday 16 it is the day of the official ceremony with the first costume parade of the Ninfa Albaluce 2021 Carola Borgia, who will have to pass the baton, accompanied by the Credenza Vinicola, the Order of the Nymphs, the representatives of districts and hamlets, the municipal administration and the mayors of the territory guests of the event. The park hosts the children’s palio which is valid for Sunday’s score.

Saturday 17 the security machine is also set in motion with the opening of the municipal operations center. The commission for the evaluation of wines participating in the Grappolo d’oro wine competition reserved for Erbaluce in the still, sparkling and passito types is set up in the wine shop, while the library hosts an anthological exhibition dedicated to the painter Franco Pinna. On Saturday evening and throughout Sunday the curtain opens around the two key elements on which the event rests: the promotion of Erbaluce wine, and the tradition, linked to the rite of the harvest with the districts and hamlets that take possession of the city of wine to transform it into a kaleidoscope of sounds, colors and flavors. The promotion of Erbaluce wines is experienced through taste, enhanced on Saturday with the menus prepared by the veje piole, which is combined with a wine producer, and by some Pro loco Canavesane, guests of the quadrilateral of taste. The appointment (from 10 on Sunday in the tensile structure in Piazza Valperga) is back with Divino Canavese, the exhibition market of Erbaluce wines combined with excellent local products, entrusted to the direction of the Consortium for the protection of Caluso and Carema docg wines and Canavese.

Sunday 18 is the big day: that of traditions. Starting at 11 am in the former town hall in Piazza Ubertini, the public will be able to follow the election of the Ninfa Albaluce 2022, and the awarding of the Golden Bunch. At 3 pm from Piazza Mazzini the folkloric parade will start with themed floats curated by the districts and hamlets. At 5 pm the time for the Grape Palio begins. Don’t miss the tribute to the legendary Blues Brothers in the Spurgazzi park (10pm). The Monday evening returns full of suggestions with the closing parade and the awards ceremony for the winners of the palio, the boccio tournament, the best group and the best float.