2026 edition over
The next edition has no date yet.
When the organisers set one, this page updates.
What a nocattolo is
A sweet of lard shortcrust pastry with an almond-paste filling — hazelnut in some family versions — scented with cinnamon and dusted with icing sugar. In Nicosia it is the sweet of feast days, above all at Christmas, and the recipes are handed down at home. Its origins are traced to the era when the town counted barons, counts and marquises, and the nocattolo was the sweet of the great occasions; on the etymology the Latin nucatum and the Arabic noqûlât are both proposed, but that is only a hypothesis.
Since 2015 the nocattolo has held the Municipal Denomination (De.Co.): it was the first product of Nicosia to receive one, awarded in the council chamber during the festival’s first edition.
The festival
Born in 2015, the festival pairs the sweet with the rest of the Nicosian table: a tasting trail through the historic centre, a food village, guided visits to the historic sites, and moments devoted to the gallo-italic speech, the dialect of Nicosia. Entry is free; in 2026 the food-village tasting ticket cost 10 euros and covered a full lunch, nocattolo included.
On the same weekend the town also hosts the Historic Vehicles Rally: a run and display of classic cars and motorcycles in the centre, part of the festival’s programme.
The record weekend
The tenth edition, on 20 and 21 June 2026, aimed high: on the Sunday morning an unbroken table of 221.70 metres with 4,239 handmade nocattoli was certified along via Fratelli Testa, and the documentation was sent to Guinness World Records for ratification. More than eight thousand were tasted over the weekend.
The next edition
The 2027 dates are not yet fixed; the June slot is the one chosen for the tenth anniversary, after years of dates between late August and September. Confirmations go out in the seasonal newsletter, along with the rest of the calendar: it takes your email address only, and one click at the bottom of any issue unsubscribes you.
