Girotonno Festival

The Girotonno festival takes place in Carloforte over four days in late May or early June and celebrates the island's historic connection to bluefin tuna fishing. It combines competitive cooking — chefs from different international tuna fishing cultures competing with the same fish — with concerts, food stalls, and a general festive atmosphere around the harbour.

The festival brings the island its biggest crowds of the year and is worth attending if you are in southern Sardinia at the right time. The cooking competition element is genuinely interesting, as it brings together Japanese, Sicilian, Basque, and Carlofortino approaches to tuna cuisine. The rest of the year, tuna features heavily in Carloforte's restaurants — the local preparation is simpler and often more satisfying than the festival versions.

things to do sight
A story
The mattanza, the traditional tuna hunt that the Girotonno festival celebrates, was a Ligurian technique brought to Sardinia by the Tabarchini settlers in the eighteenth century. It involved elaborate net systems anchored offshore and a final slaughter called la camera della morte (the chamber of death). The ritual had its own guild, its own songs, and a hierarchical crew led by the rais (head fisherman). Industrial fishing nearly ended the bluefin tuna population, and the traditional mattanza largely ceased in the early 2000s — but the festival remains.