Monferrato on Stage (San Marzano Oliveto)

Why it's special

Real acts play here — Selton in 2026, Dente the year before — and it costs nothing to stand in the square with a plate from the Pro Loco and a glass of Barbera. Music and the table on the same evening, which is about all you can ask of a village.

Programme · 2026

The San Marzano Oliveto stop of the 11th edition of the itinerant Monferrato on Stage festival, in Piazza Giovanni XXIII.

• The food area opens at 7:30pm and the concert starts at 9:30 — come early to eat, the square fills up.
• Entry's free; bring a little cash for the Pro Loco stands.

Monferrato on Stage doesn't have a home — it moves. Each summer the festival threads its way through villages across Turin, Asti and Alessandria, pairing a free concert with a proper meal, and San Marzano Oliveto has become one of its regular stops: the closing night of the 10th edition in 2025, an early-July slot in 2026.

The setup rarely changes, and that's the appeal. From 7:30pm the Pro Loco runs a food area in Piazza Giovanni XXIII with local dishes, the Consorzio Barbera d'Asti e Vini del Monferrato pours the wine, and there's a cocktail bar from the Bosso distillery. Then, at 9:30, the music starts and it's free to stand in the square — the Brazilian trio Selton in 2026, Dente the year before with his album Santa Tenerezza.

Eat first, because the square fills up once the band is on. San Marzano is a scatter of hilltop hamlets on the Barbera-and-Moscato border, and this is one of the few nights the whole village turns out in one piazza.