Locarno Risotto Festival

If you like your rice buttery, with added cheese and perhaps just a pinch of saffron, then come down to Locarno on August 23-24 to taste some of the very best.

Locarno Risotto Festival

Located in Locarno, in the Swiss canton of Ticino, this small festival celebrates one of the region's signature dishes. Risotto, especially saffron risotto, is a delicacy in these parts, and taken extremely seriously.

The festival consists of two competitions. Friday, August 23 is the Championship for Chefs, where the best chefs compete to create the perfect gooey rice dish for a specially selected jury. Saturday, August 24 is the Championship for Groups, where the competitors are community groups or carnival organisations. A carnival in the region isn't complete without someone serving up a huge pot of rice, so these contenders have a lot more experience than you might think. 

The amount cooked is prodigious, so don't worry, there's plenty to go around! A wine bar, music and, for those who aren't too full, dancing complete the celebratory feel of the evenings.

Ticino and risotto

While risotto is originally an Italian dish, Ticino is the closest canton in Switzerland to Italy and the only one that has Italian as its sole official language. It was even part of the Duchy of Milan until the 1500s, so they have a lot of shared culture with Italy. 

The secret to their great risottos, so it is claimed, is using rice grown only in the canton, ideally around Lake Maggiore, even though rice has only been grown here for the last 20 years or so. 

In 2023, a food website ranked Ticino's saffron risotto as the best type of risotto in the world and a huge storm broke out on the internet between the Swiss and the Italians, who still see the dish as very much their own.

From August 19 to September 8, the region also hosts its annual "Risotto Hunt", where a downloadable guide will help take you around the canton to discover the best risotto being served up, wherever it might be found.

Attending the Locarno Risotto Festival

The risotto festival takes place each evening, from 7pm until 10pm. It's free to come down and join in, and you don't need any tickets. You can find out more about the festival on the Ticino tourist board event page.

Locarno is easily reached by public transport from other Swiss cities and, of course, even Milan.