Piemonte Italia

Sampeyre, 2012 – “Baìo” returns

An event long-awaited by enthusiasts of ancient popular traditions, the Baìo di Sampeyre returns in 2012, a traditional festival with millenary roots that is only staged every 5 years in the little municipality of the Valle Varaita, in the province of Cuneo. Elements of a historical and fantastical nature intertwine, overlapping: it narrates that around the year one thousand, in the alpine valleys, the raids of the Saracen hordes from Provence brought destruction and deaths, such that the inhabitants of the valleys revolted by organising themselves into popular armies. The event takes place over three days, the two pre-carnival Sundays (5 and 12 February) and the Thursday before Lent (16 February). The festival’s actors are all inhabitants of the valley – but strictly male only – in the garments of the numerous and colourful characters: from Harlequins to Cellarmen, from the Old Man and the Old Woman, to the Turks, from the various Armies, to the Newly-Weds, to the Lords. The “Sonaudur” (players) are the mainstay of the Baio and enliven the procession and the dances by playing day and night.
The days always open in the mornings with the call of the Tambourin (tambourine) and continue with the parades that visit the various small villages; on the Thursday before Lent the “trials” are added: the Baie bring to trial and pass judgment on their own Treasurer accused of theft against the community: the sentence issued to the accused is not the same in all four locations.