Grain Festival 2018 - Sassello (SV) - Friday 13, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 July

The Proloco of Sassello is organising the third edition of the event dedicated to grain and agriculture, with events, shows, demonstrations, food stalls, workshops and activities for young and old. Among the scheduled programmes, highlights include the Lumberjack Triathlon, the pony-riding initiation for children, the "From Grain to Bread" workshop, threshing grain with antique machines, a truffle-hunting demonstration and a skateboard and BMX show.

It will have happened to many of us, watching western films, to feel a healthy envy towards the cowboys who raced across the prairies on beautiful horses, or to admire those young and strapping lumberjacks you sometimes see on some satellite channel competing with chainsaws, slicing immense tree trunks as if they were salami. But no less are those nimble young people doing tricks with the skateboard or in the saddle on a BMX, to master which you need to be a very good cycling cowboy.

During the Grain Festival, which will be held at the Parco Giochi area in Sassello (SV) on Friday 13, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 July, these film fantasies will become reality, and it will be easy to discover that the charm of country life in the Ligurian hinterland even surpasses that of the westerns. There will be three days of absolute fun in the town that was the first in Italy to be awarded the prestigious tourist-environmental quality mark of the Touring Club's Bandiere Arancioni, and which is known not only for its precious historical and cultural heritage but also for its numerous agricultural and food excellences, from grain and bread to mushrooms, from cheeses to meat, right up to artisan-produced amaretti.

During the three days everyone will be able to see the cowboys of the Ligurian hinterland at work, together with the most skilled lumberjacks and farmers of the area, and besides watching the spectacle of demonstrations of the traditional activities of country life, there will also be opportunities for young and old to get to know the animals in the educational farm, or even to take their first steps on horseback during the pony-riding initiation. Those who don't feel up to getting in the saddle, on the other hand, can take a pleasant carriage ride through the streets of the town, admiring Sassello's evocative corners like a grand lord. Four-legged friends will be the great stars of the event, and not only those that young and old can admire at the animal exhibition, but also the truffle dogs that will help their owners during the truffle-hunting demonstration.

Grain is being celebrated, and indeed one of the flagship events of the festival will be the demonstration of threshing grain with antique machines: an occasion for a journey back in time, an authentic return to the origins in discovery of the grain supply chain. Children will also be involved in the magic of the trade thanks to the educational workshop "From Grain to Bread".

Speaking of bread, the food stalls, with the area's typical zero-km products, will be waiting for the public every day, both at lunch and dinner, and live music and the evening of music and songs on the Saturday will help ensure the merriment.

One of the most eagerly awaited moments is undoubtedly the Lumberjack Triathlon, a spectacular sporting event during which the most skilled lumberjacks of Sassello will compete with chainsaws. We'll see the lightness with which they'll be able to cut a slice of exactly three kilos from an overturned trunk, and there'll be fun too during the wine-glass exercise: placed on a trunk standing upright, the glass containing the good nectar of the vines must come out unscathed from the cutting of a slice no more than three centimetres thick beneath it. By cutting this slice of wood, the lumberjack will in effect create a plate on which to serve the wine.

This year there will be no fewer than two sporting novelties: the open-field bowls competition and the skateboard and BMX show by the young people of Skatepark Sassello, with the participation of athlete Ilaria Naef.

For further information and updates: Facebook - Proloco Sassello