The Cynara Festival kicks off. Many novelties are planned with good food, great wines, and exceptional guests, featuring music, cooking shows, and innovation. The highlight will be on April 25th with the 42nd Artichoke Festival of Cerda.
Palermo, April 19, 2024 – There is an Artichoke Civilization in Sicily, and Cerda, a small town on the northeast side of the province of Palermo, wants to increasingly be its capital. It’s the symbol vegetable of an entire community, of a vertically integrated economy, and of agriculture passed down from generation to generation, of a cuisine that, with a multi-decade tradition, has splendidly specialized in glorifying this prince of agri-food biodiversity, boasting of many exquisite recipes that pay homage to the very identity of this corner of Sicilian land. This is the profound and, at the same time, simple and immediate meaning of the Cynara Festival, scheduled from April 20th to 28th in Cerda, reaching its peak on April 25th with the 42nd edition of the Artichoke Festival of Cerda, a historic and popular event that, since its first edition in 1984, has attracted tens of thousands of people: families, tourists, and connoisseurs, all seeking an experience worth a treasure. Unveiling its richness, highlighting its prospective value – especially for the new generations – by investing in this “cultural deposit” as well as its productive and socio-economic aspects, is the shared mission of all Cerda’s residents, led by a municipal administration that focuses and bets on the artichoke, together with its entire community. “Cerda and the artichoke are the destiny of an entire territory,” says Salvatore Geraci, the Mayor of Cerda and Sicilian regional parliamentarian. First and foremost, historically, because this agricultural area has always stood out as the most suitable for the cultivation of the spiny artichoke of Cerda, the most precious among Sicily’s autochthonous specialties. Many families have built their existence on this small but important treasure, which must extend its benefits even further, fully integrating into the panorama of excellence in our island’s agri-food system. The Cynara Festival is the tool that can generate that leap in quality that we aim to achieve, starting from this edition, by creating a program packed with initiatives, extended to eight days, and reaching its climax on April 25th, Liberation Day – in full respect of tradition – with maximum popular participation in the grand and bustling Artichoke Festival of Cerda, one of the most attended in Italy”. A people’s celebration with ancient roots but looking to the future by forging alliances in the territory, starting with the one signed with the restaurants of Cerda and the entire area stretching from the regional capital to Cefalù, also involving Bagheria, Termini Imerese, and Castelbuono. Alliances that embrace other excellences of Sicily with the wines of the Monreale Doc, eight wineries lined up to magnify the encounter between food and wine, which debuted in preview at Vinitaly with great success. The godmother of the 42nd edition of the Cerda Festival is Giusy Battaglia – a true Cerda native – raised on bread and artichokes and a great television testimonial of a food culture that fascinates because it is authentic, familiar, and genuine. A voice and a face that have captured the attention of many viewers for communicative style of “Giusyna in the kitchen” and recently landed on the flagship format of Rai dedicated to stoves, “It’s always Noon,” hosted by Antonella Clerici. An excellent platform, that of Cerda, which will also involve the ladies of the Cerda community, who have brought out from the drawers of memory the family recipes passed down from mother to daughter. A heritage of flavors and knowledge that illuminates the Cynara Festival in a new light and aims to constitute a true Kitchen Brigade.