Puegnago Hosts Valtenesi Fair, Palio Botti Race, and Food Events
Puegnago will be the capital of Valtenesi during these last weekends of summer: starting from this weekend, in fact, the small town of Valtenesi becomes the venue for a series of major popular events, among which the highlight is the traditional Fair of Handicrafts and Agriculture, now entering its twenty-fifth edition. The schedule is really packed, beginning today, August 24, with a long-standing tradition of Puegnago called the End-of-August Festival, organized by the well-established Gruppo sportivo Felter which, among other things, will return in October with two other unmissable traditional events: the polenta tiragna festival and the chestnuts festival.
To bid farewell to August, Gruppo Felter proposes a now classic recipe, made of sport, gastronomy, entertainment, and open-air dancing under the stars: all this until Sunday evening. The celebration will energize for the twenty-fifth edition of the Fiera di Puegnago, scheduled from August 31 to September 3: this year, among the main attractions, there will be none other than the Palio delle Botti della Valtenesi, a race invented exactly ten years ago by the Valtenesi section of the Lions Club and over time becoming a highly followed and participated event.
The scheduled events
The teams from the seven municipalities of the district will compete on the evenings of August 31 and September 2, adding flavor to a fair that celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary by spotlighting typical local products from Garda agriculture, offering Doc wines and Dop olive oil for sale and tasting, and opening interesting debates on the thriving moment of a niche agriculture now reaching indisputable high-quality standards.
Just think about how, in 1977, when the fair was launched under the presidency of Gian Battista Comincioli, wine was still mainly sold in demijohns and olive oil was far from gaining public approval and the reputation it now rightly enjoys in recent years. “These 25 years have been a busy period, characterized by strict competition and many courageous initiatives,” explains the mayor Gianfranco Comincioli. “A phase that has led us to the current levels, promoting an important social promotion of the district and the community.”
The program includes two important conferences, one on the development of viticulture in the Garda region (Friday 31 at 6 p.m.) and another on quality assurance for Dop olive oil, as well as a contest for the best spit-roast, aimed at local agritourism operators, and numerous folkloric and musical events. All will take place in the restored setting of the Castello, recently renovated and home to the gastronomic stand where typical Brescia recipes from the Coldiretti volume “A cena dai nonni” will be offered. During the fair, two new streets will be inaugurated, named after Bruno Boni and Paolo Bonomi, the first president of Coldiretti. The local administration is also already thinking ahead to the Mostra mercato del Tartufo Bresciano, scheduled for November.