Anciue: the Anchovy Fair in Dronero, in the mountains of the Maira Valley

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1. Next June, during the first weekend of June 2024, the Anchovy Fair returns to Dronero Anciue. A weekend of exchange and meeting, an event that tells a story and a valley through the taste of the products.
2. It may seem strange to talk about anchovies in mountain valleys, but in the distant past, and not so distant, the inhabitants of the Alpine valleys, in winter, were forced to look for work far from home. The anchovies of the Maira Valley bought fish in Liguria and, at the end of the summer work, they left and toured all over Piedmont pushing their Caruss (cart) loaded with salted fish. It was a humble and hard job, but many managed to make a fortune. After the Second World War, these figures began to disappear and the Anchovy Fair remembers this past by proposing a food and wine itinerary and the rediscovery of ancient traditions related to the consumption of anchovies… and the products of the Monviso valleys.

It is a fair because for Dronero and for the whole Maira Valley it is a Festival. A feast of colours, sounds, scents, smells; A celebration of people, a celebration of adults and children, a celebration of families, a celebration of friends.

Three days designed to be together, to rejoice and to look forward to the summer that is coming. Anciue is the beauty of walking through ancient streets, marveling at the beauty of an ancient village and its dwellings; Anciue is the beauty of walking through the streets and squares and discovering and tasting new and old flavors. Anciue is the scent of anchovies, the music, the street performances and those on stages. Anciue are the words of those who have the profession of anchovy maker in their blood and of those who love to think that these traditions can bring with them the drive to imagine, with the imagination of those who have been able to look far ahead, the future of cities, towns and villages of the Maira Valley. But, above all, Anciue are the people, they are the people who work to make the fair possible, they are the people behind the stalls, they are Dronerese merchants and merchants who open doors and shops, they are the people who bring old and new music, they are the people who accept the invitation of the city of Dronero to be a little anchovy maker and a little Droneresi.