Bari’s oldest festival celebrates its patron Saint Nicholas with a lurid, noisy parade on 8 May, preceded by the Processione dei Pellegrini, the procession of pilgrims to the sea. Easter is marked by a week of parades of mournful brass bands and religious icons. The Fiera del Levante (www.fieradellevante.it) is a more recent creation, designed to celebrate Bari’s trade links with the Near East. Throughout the summer a wide range of music and theatre is performed, usually for free, in the Old Town.

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