Dolcemente Castelbuono and Jazz Winter Festival also in Palermo
The four-day food and wine and local artistic craftsmanship event in Castelbuono, the municipality in the Madonie area, covers the long weekend of the Immaculate Conception where from 8 to 11 December it will be possible to taste the food and confectionery products and admire (and, if you wish, to buy) handcrafted creations of excellence from Sicily. But that’s not all: in fact there is the “Castelbuono Jazz Winter – Collesano Gospel and Christmas in Gangi” from 9 to 31 December 2022, or rather until 1 January 2023 as the New Year’s concert starts at 11.30 pm to greet the arrival of the new year in the square. The slogan of the musical festival, which involves these municipalities and Cefalù as regards the Madonie area, and the municipality of Palermo, is “Enter the fairy tale, spend Christmas in the Madonie”. Considering the program, it is a reliable advertisement for an event that goes hand in hand with the Castelbuono festival of sweets and other delicacies.
In Castelbuono from the peninsula with ferries to Palermo
An advisable and alternative way (both to the plane to Palermo and to the ferry across the Strait) of reaching Castelbuono from the Italian peninsula is to take a ferry to Palermo (to the main port or, via lines departing from some maritime stations, to the port of Termini Imerese) and take the road that remains to arrive at your destination by car or by bus. The duration of the navigation with the ferries departing from Genoa is twenty and a half hours and from Civitavecchia approximately fourteen hours. The ferries on the Livorno – Palermo route leave three days a week and take around twenty hours, while the duration of the navigation of those on the Naples – Palermo route, which depart daily, is around ten hours. At the time of booking, you can choose the type of accommodation on board and opt or not to include a vehicle.
Event with food and wine and artistic experiences
With the “Dolcemente Castelbuono” event, typical products and quality raw materials at zero kilometer are relaunched and offered thanks to the participation of companies producing preserves, wine bars, dairies, salami factories, breweries, pastry shops and Sicilian butchery shops but also of artisan artists who make accessories, textile creations, ceramics and jewellery, with a focus on the Madonie truffle as the icing on the cake.
The protagonists are street food and especially traditional desserts, including panettone, cannoli, chocolate, nougat, almond and pistachio paste and much more, all strictly from the territory of the Sicilian Region.
On Thursday 8 December 2022, the food and wine and artistic handicraft stands in Castelbuono, precisely in Via Sant’Anna, in Piazza Margherita and in Piazza Castello, are ready for the public. You can also visit the Santa Anastasia Abbey, where a tasting of organic and biodynamic wines is scheduled. In the center of the town located on the slopes of the Milocca hill, the members of the Ciauru di Sicilia folk group do not go unnoticed on the streets and, in Piazza Castello, the House of Santa Claus with the elves equipped with a mailbox.
On Friday 9 December 2022, the wine tastings continue in the Sant’Anastasia Abbey, today a relais with a cellar that has recovered the vineyards formerly cultivated by the Benedictine monks. In the village the stands and Santa Claus’ house continue to be open and, in the late afternoon, you can attend the “Tribute to Totò” show in Piazza Castello.
On Saturday 10 December 2022, in addition to the usual events in the programme, among the stands in Via Sant’Anna you can also taste the buccellato, the traditional Christmas dessert in Sicily, offered by a local biscuit factory; an afternoon concert is also planned in Piazza Margherita and an evening concert of the Festival Jazz Winter kermesse in the Sala delle Capriate of the former monastery of Santa Venera (called Badia), currently home to the “Antonio Castelli” municipal library and the Addolorata Church. You can also see and hear the pipers around the village.
On Sunday 11 December 2022 there are also some new features compared to the previous days: an Argentine tango performance in the conference room of the “Francesco Minà Palumbo” naturalistic museum on the occasion of world tango day. In the same location, the organizers of the Festival of illustration and children’s literature “Illustramente” propose a themed meeting on the narration of the Sicilian folk tale. The conference “Nutrition at the service of health” is held in the Sala delle Capriate of the former Badia, followed by the meeting “The well-being of wine”. In the late afternoon, as part of the Winter Jazz Festival, a traveling concert is held.
Castelbuono Jazz Winter, Collesano Gospel and Christmas in Gangi
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth year, the Castelbuono Jazz Festival is also proposed in the winter version, with musical events also in Collesano, Gangi and Cefalù, other municipalities that fall within the mountainous ridge of the metropolitan city of Palermo which plunges into the Sea Tyrrhenian called the Madonie, and in the historic center of the capital city of Sicily.
In the frame of the former church of the Santissimo Crocifisso of Castelbuono, today Centro Polis, several concerts with international artists take place, with free admission subject to availability, starting from 10 December with the performance of Filippo Paternò and Marnostrum Ensemble Quintet. The next day it’s the Dixie Kings who tread the stage. On December 18 there is “A soulful Christmas”, classic Christmas songs interpreted by the soulful voice of Daria Biancardi. December 22nd is the turn of the Ensemble Gospel Band directed by keyboardist Antonio Zarcone. December 28 is the show of the eclectic Dr. Ronald Ixaac Hubbard (Pastor Ron). On 30 December the evening is enlivened by the “Xmas Concert” by the Giuseppe Milici Quartet.
The grand finale of the Castelbuono Jazz Winter is for New Year’s Eve: the Banda di Avola and the Syracusan singer Peppe Cubeta perform the album Annakiti, born from their collaboration, in Piazza Castello, with a presentation by the actor Marcello Mordino.
Collesano Gospel
In the basilica of San Pietro di Collesano we start with the show “E Scinniu la notte” by Mario Incudine, singer, theater actor and multi-instrumentalist, on 9 December. On Christmas Eve the Dixie Kings perform, while on Boxing Day there is Doctor Ronald Ixaac Hubbard with his show. On December 28th the performance of the Palermo Spiritual Ensemble choral group is scheduled, which reinterpret the gospel genre in Sicilian dialect. On December 30 there is the musical performance of the Ensemble Gospel Band.
Christmas in Gangi
In the Multipurpose Hall of the town of Gangi the first band to perform is that of Giuliana Di Liberto (December 9); on December 11th it is the turn of Mario Incudine, on December 16th of the Giuseppe Milici Quartet, on the 23rd of the Palermo Spiritual Ensemble and on the 26th of the Dixie Kings.
Cefalù
On December 27, in the hall of the Fondazione Istituto G. Giglio hospital in Cefalù, Ronald Hubbard stages his Gospel Show.
Palermo
It is the Dixie Kings who bring the music of Jazz Winter to Palermo, precisely on December 23rd, first at the Falcone Borsellino airport and then through the streets of the historic centre.
