July is definitely the best month to experience and get to know Pistoia.
Great original music, tradition, festivities and many open air events take place in the unique large-scale programme of the Pistoia Festival.

The heart of the event is the blues, a musical genre that is closely associated with the city that has been able to make it into one of the most important musical events internationally thanks to musicians who are known worldwide and high quality shows. The 29th edition will also bring a long list of famous groups and singers onto the stage set up in Piazza Duomo.

On 5 July, Jethro Tull will play; on 11, 12 and 13 July it will be the turn of Deep Purple, Johnny Winter and Lenny Kravitz respectively. The musical event attracts many of the sector's operators, experts and culture-vultures of the genre, as well as many tourists who make the most of this magical period to visit this Tuscan town. We shouldn't forget that Pistoia Festival also dedicates one of its best features to tradition.

On 25 July, in accordance with the festivities of San Jacopo, the city's patron saint, the most significant folklore event takes place: the Giostra dell’Orso. This is the modern reconstruction of the old "corsa del palio" documented since the first half of the 13th century and held in such great importance by the residents that it was always carried out over the centuries without interruption even in exceptional circumstances such as wars, epidemics and civil political wars. Indeed, it continued until World War I broke out and began again as Giostra dell'Orso in 1947. Since then, it has always been fought in the stunning Piazza del Duomo.

The city's four neighbourhoods contend the Palio, whose names are taken from the city's gates: Drago, Leon D'Oro, Cervo Bianco, Grifone. Each is represented by three companies guided by a captain and equipped with flag-bearers, rider, trumpeter, many halbardiers, banner-bearers and assistants that overall form a striking parade of about 300 people in their typical medieval costumes that winds through the streets of the historical centre to Piazza del Duomo.

The Giostra is disputed between twelve riders who gallop along the appropriate route two at a time until reaching the figures of two stylised bears that form the target to hit. At the end the winning neighbourhood is proclaimed, while the rider who has obtained the most points individually wins the title of "Cavalier speron d'oro di Pistoia e contado".