The event is a celebration of colours and music where the profane meets the sacred, and where the follower seeks the protection of the Madonna taking onto himself joy and suffering.

The most loyal followers, prepare a few days before with loads of food and gifts for the Madonna. From the first lights of dawn the silence is broken by the chants and dances of the peregrines who clamber up towards the sanctuary. In small groups they pause roasting goats meat and prepare banquets drinking the local full bodied red wine.

Expressions of joy accompanied by the most typical instruments such as the reed-pipe and the barrel organ, become ever more noisy as you approach the sanctuary. At the sight of the temple the peregrines perform circle it three times, whilst excitement grows and doesn't stop, even inside the church. Here, in front of the statue of the Madonna, followers kneel down and send kisses to the Virgin. 

After the visit, accompanied by the unfailing bagpipes and by a fluttering of handkerchiefs, the peregrine go towards the cave where the statue was found. The cave represents another topical moment of the festival where one stops to pray and to place votive candles.
 
Saturday after mass the statue is taken on a procession, preceded by the women who dance with girdles around their head, then outside the church it is placed under auction for the towns of the Pollino; they will take her on a procession that winds its way along the whole Calabria Lucania side of the massif.