Summer Ladin Festival in Canazei

From the 03rd to the 06th of September Canazei, Ladin village in the heart of the Dolomites Mountains, lived with great enthusiasm the traditional Festival of its Ladin culture, which this year got to its thirtieth edition.
Four happy days, folk Ladin music, dancing and balls, traditional costumes parades and typical Tirol food, all to celebrate the end of the Summer.
The peak of the Festival was on Sunday, when the Canazei streets got full of music bands and folkloric groups coming from the 4 Ladin valleys: Fassa, Badia, Gardena and Livinallongo.
The traditional Ladin people costume is very linked with Dolomites, an area which for a long time was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and its people was perfectly integrated in the Austrian life. The Ladins used to get dressed, eat, and dance like in other parts of the Empire, especially in a tight connexion with the whole Tirol region.
Nowadays the Ladins wear their traditional costumes as a kind of rite. You have to be able to wear it with a correct posture, being aware that it’s not only a dress, but that it represents an ethnic group, a language, a history.
The Ladins are a minority ethnic people and since always they need to distinguish to survive.This amazing Festival helps the 4 Ladin valleys to carry on in contact between each other, and united.

Apart from the folk music with Austrian style, in these 4 days you have the chance to try the real typical Ladin food: local ham and cheese, canederli, barley soup, smoked meat, shin, sauerkrauts, and of course polenta!
Get sure you don’t miss the yummy typical Ladin cakes: “fortaes”, fried with sugar and marmalade, and “sones”, fried with apple.
Hope you get encouraged to go to this Festival next year…
Ciao ciao
Sergio
PS- Photo Gallery 2009 (pictures courtesy of Mr.Sessa Anton).