"Anchovies among the mountains" Anciue: The Anchovy Fair in Dronero, amidst the mountains of the Maira Valley

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Next June, during the first weekend of June 2024, Anciue returns to Dronero, the Anchovy Fair. It’s a weekend of exchange and encounter, an event that tells a story of a valley through the taste of its products.

It might seem strange to talk about anchovies in mountain valleys, but in both distant and not-so-distant pasts, inhabitants of the Alpine valleys, during winter, were forced to seek work far from home. The anchovy sellers from the Maira Valley used to buy fish in Liguria and, at the end of the summer season, they would travel all over Piedmont, pushing their carts loaded with salted fish. It was a humble and tough job, but many managed to make a fortune. In the post-World War II era, these figures began to disappear, and the Anchovy Fair commemorates this past by offering a food and wine itinerary and rediscovering ancient traditions related to the consumption of anchovies… and products from the valleys of Monviso.

It’s a fair because for Dronero and the entire Maira Valley, it’s a celebration. A celebration of colors, sounds, aromas, scents; a celebration of people, adults and children alike, families, friends. Three days designed to be together, to rejoice, and to look forward to the coming summer. Anciue is the beauty of walking through ancient streets, marveling at the beauty of an old village and its homes; Anciue is the beauty of walking through streets and squares, discovering and savoring new and ancient flavors. Anciue is the scent of anchovies, the music, the street performances, and those on the stages. Anciue is the words of those who have the anchovy profession in their blood and those who love to think that these traditions can carry with them the impetus to imagine, with the imagination of those who have been able to look far ahead, the future of cities, towns, and hamlets of the Maira Valley. But above all, Anciue is the people. It’s the people who work to make the fair possible, the people behind the stands, the merchants and business owners of Dronero who open doors and shops, the people who bring old and new music, the people who accept the city of Dronero’s invitation to be a little bit anchovy sellers and a little bit Dronero residents.