Every September, in one of Sicily’s most evocative settings, one of the most eagerly awaited international gastronomic events comes to life: the Sherbeth Festival, the festival of homemade ice cream that transforms taste into culture, tradition into a sensory experience, and raw materials into a tale. Here, ice cream is not just a food product, but a language capable of uniting distant worlds, telling of territories, evoking memories.
The Sherbeth Festival is much more than a festival or a gourmet market: it is a crossroads of knowledge and flavours, an edible atlas that attracts thousands of enthusiasts, tourists, professionals and the curious every year. At the centre is he, the artisan gelato, declined in its most authentic and creative forms, thanks to the presence of the world’s best gelato masters. But there is also Sicily, with its millennial hospitality, its sunny architecture, and its deep connection between food and identity. It is this encounter that makes each edition of the Sherbeth Festival unique.
Origins and spirit of the festival
The Sherbeth Festival was born in 2007 from a simple and ambitious idea: to restore cultural dignity to homemade ice cream, recognising its gastronomic and anthropological value. The name, ‘Sherbeth’, has its roots in the Arabic language and refers to the very origins of ice cream, which in medieval Sicily was made with snow from Mount Etna, natural flavourings and cane sugar. It is a term that recalls the East, but also the history of Sicily as a meeting place of civilisations. This was the starting point for a project that has grown year after year, becoming the first international festival entirely dedicated to homemade ice cream.
The first editions were held in various locations in Sicily, between Cefalù and Palermo, until arriving, in the most recent editions, in Catania and Palermo, cities that have best interpreted the multicultural vocation of the event. Over time, the Sherbeth Festival has established itself as a world reference, not only for the quality of its productions but also for its ability to combine entertainment, education, tourism and gastronomic research.
The heart of the Sherbeth Festival: ice cream makers from all over the world
What makes the Sherbeth Festival truly extraordinary is its community of protagonists. Every year, more than 40 master ice cream makers from different continents are selected to participate in the event, bringing with them not only their technique, but their story. Each ice cream is a story: of a territory, an ingredient, a memory, a family tradition or a bold innovation. Thus one encounters Austrian mountain flavours with oriental spices, Sicilian citrus with South American fruit, goat’s milk with Bronte pistachio, purple carrots with green tea, chocolate from Madagascar with Trapani salt.
During the days of the festival, visitors can stroll among the stalls set up along the streets and squares of the host city, taste dozens of flavours, talk directly with the ice-cream makers, attend show-cooking, sensory workshops, conferences, and talks on the food supply chain. But the real added value of the Sherbeth Festival is the confrontation that takes place between professionals: mantecatura techniques, temperatures, sugar balance, the relationship between sweetness and acidity, the selection of raw materials… everything is discussed, exchanged, analysed. The quality is very high, but always in a spirit of sharing.
The setting: a Sicily that tells its own story
Each edition of the Sherbeth Festival is also a way to rediscover the most welcoming and cultured face of Sicily. The cities hosting the event – including Palermo, Cefalù, Catania – have made their historic centres, noble palaces, squares and courtyards available, transforming themselves into true ‘ice-cream villages’. The urban landscape becomes an integral part of the experience, amidst Baroque, Art Nouveau, Arab and Norman architecture. The smell of waffles mingles with the sound of footsteps on ancient cobblestones, while music groups, street artists and contemporary art installations enliven the festival evenings.
Visitors to Sherbeth do not just consume ice cream: they explore historic markets, discover traditional pastry shops, visit museums and participate in thematic itineraries. The tourism that revolves around the Sherbeth Festival is attentive, cultured, eager to discover the island in its deepest, non-stereotypical dimension. And Sicily, for its part, offers itself generously: in its ancient recipes, in the smiles of its artisans, in the discreet beauty of its urban spaces.
Recent editions: innovation, sustainability and new languages
The 2023 edition of the Sherbeth Festival, held in Palermo, marked an important turning point. After the difficulties linked to the pandemic, the festival returned with a new energy, focusing on a number of fundamental themes: sustainability, short supply chain, professional training and the promotion of PDO and PGI products. Among the most popular flavours were those based on ancient Sicilian citrus fruits, almond pizzuta d’Avola, sheep ricotta from the Iblei Mountains, but also vegan proposals, gluten-free, and made with rare or saved from extinction ingredients.
The Procopio de’ Coltelli Prize was a great success, awarded to the gelato maker who best embodies the spirit of the festival: a balance between artisan quality, innovation and narrative ability. The jury, made up of food and wine journalists, food technologists, chefs and culinary historians, also valorised the small provincial gelato parlours, rewarding the coherence of the projects and the ethical choice of ingredients.
The 2024 edition, once again scheduled to be held in Palermo, saw a further step forward in planning: the introduction of a Sherbeth Academy, with courses and seminars for young gelato makers, the expansion of spaces dedicated to Sicilian producers (cheeses, honeys, dried fruit, citrus fruits), and a focus on the theme of water as a resource and fundamental ingredient. There was also talk of climate, changes in cultivation, the environmental impact of the confectionery industry: the festival thus demonstrated its ability to be topical, to address global issues with the apparent lightness of ice cream.
A universal language that unites
The Sherbeth Festival has the rare merit of succeeding in bringing together the pure pleasure of taste with deep cultural content. Each gelato tells a piece of the world, and in the encounter between palate and thought a form of awareness is born. Because choosing an ice cream, asking the artisan how it was made, discovering that the ingredient comes from a small farm or a social cooperative, is a way of building relationships. Food, here, is a vehicle of empathy, of exchange, of possibility.
It is no coincidence that many Sherbeth Festival visitors return every year, building a personal, almost emotional relationship with the event. Even for ice cream makers, participating means joining a network that values quality, storytelling, passion. Alliances are formed, ideas are born, bridges are built. This is, perhaps, the deepest meaning of the word Sherbeth: something that refreshes, but also connects.
Tips for those who want to experience the festival in an authentic way
Those who intend to visit the Sherbeth Festival should not just ‘go and eat ice cream’. The advice is to immerse yourself in the city hosting the event, take time to discover the setting, let your instincts guide you, talk to the gelato makers, attend the workshops, attend the lectures, read the labels. The festival is not a theme park, but an experience of food culture.
It is useful to plan ahead: the highlight days are at the weekend, when the tastings reach peak attendance. Equipping yourself with a tasting pass allows you to access a selection of flavours, and participate in side events. Urban walks, thematic itineraries related to the history of ice cream or Sicilian cuisine are also often proposed.
Dressing comfortably, bringing water (especially on hot days), and perhaps a notebook to take notes or jot down the name of an ice-cream maker that has particularly impressed you, are simple but useful expedients. For those who love photography, the festival squares offer unique glimpses: spoons sinking into colourful creams, concentrated faces, smiles that open to discovery.
The Sherbeth Festival is one of those events that manage to naturally combine pleasure and knowledge. It does not celebrate ice cream as a simple dessert, but returns it to its original dimension: that of a cultural product, a shared memory, a symbol of hospitality.
Those who participate take home much more than just a good taste. They bring with them the knowledge that food can be a vehicle for knowledge, that quality is a choice, that tradition is never static but constantly evolving. And that Sicily, with its millennial history and its ability to welcome the world, is the perfect place to tell this story.