The Parma Ham Festival with Open Windows returns to Langhirano (Pr)

From 4 to 6 September, the Parma Ham Festival, the traditional event dedicated to one of the most representative excellences of Italy’s gastronomic heritage, returns to Langhirano (Pr).

The event will officially begin tomorrow, Friday 4 September at 18:30 with the opening ceremony, hosted by Francesca Romana Barberini. The evening’s guests will be chef Andrea Mainardi and sprint champion Fausto Desalu, a gold medallist at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 and a bronze medallist at the latest European Athletics Championships.

The events

There are numerous events scheduled for 5 and 6 September. Following last year’s outstanding success, the Parma Ham Experience, a space designed for enthusiasts and tourists, returns, featuring talks, cooking shows and opportunities for information and discussion, alongside an exclusive tasting experience. By purchasing a dedicated ticket, visitors will be able to taste three different maturations of Parma Ham, as well as a fourth produced by hand-carving, paired with other food and wine specialities.

Among the most eagerly awaited events is the unmissable and much-anticipated Open Windows, one of the moments that has always been most popular with the public. Launched in 1999, the initiative gives enthusiasts, food lovers and simply curious visitors the opportunity to enter ham factories and gain an insight into the production stages and secrets of PDO Parma Ham. It is an exclusive way to discover the product in the very places where it is made and enjoy an experience combining gastronomy, culture and the local area.

The producers tell their story

What makes Open Windows, the Festival’s flagship event, special is above all the direct encounter with those who devote their daily commitment and passion to Parma Ham . It is the producers themselves who guide the public inside the ham factories on a journey of discovery, enriched by stories of their experiences and by that combination of passion, sacrifice and knowledge which, after two thousand years of history, still makes it possible to pass this tradition down through the generations.

The comment

“When Open Windows was launched, at the end of the 1990s, initiatives of this kind were fairly limited and took shape mainly thanks to the insight and commitment of local areas and their communities. Today, PDO tourism has become an indispensable tool for conveying the authentic value of our protected products, which is why we are particularly proud to have had that happy insight almost thirty years ago,” comments Alessandro Utini, president of the Parma Ham Consortium. “Parma Ham is born from an inseparable bond with its local area and from production know-how built on experience, expertise and practices passed down from generation to generation. It is a heritage that we have a duty to safeguard and whose value we want to continue to affirm. The Festival and Open Windows represent precisely this: an opportunity to bring people closer to our producers, give them an insight into their work and offer a truly immersive experience of one of the world’s most beloved products.”

This year, Open Windows will take place on 5-6, 12-13 and 20 September. Useful information for booking and organising visits to the ham factories taking part in Open Windows, together with the full programme for the Parma Ham Festival, is available on the dedicated website.

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.