Miss Strega is a competion got to the 9th edition (2009). Every partecipant has to interpretate the figure of the Witch of the Third Millennium proposing a creative and original dress during a fashion show night. Here are the origins of this great success, event inside the event of Halloween - La Festa delle Streghe in Corinaldo.

Walking through the narrow street of our historical centre at the end of October, somebody tells to have felt something magic in the air..

Of course in Corinaldo, in this period of the year, the suggestion can easily come into your minds. Just try to think to the streets, to the little tunnels, to the towers and to the medieval walls... silence all over... everybody is resting, somebody is going for a walk while another day is running out and the bell tower announces that it's midnight...

Maybe the moon is the only fellow in this solitary magic night...the lights and shadows games that the moon is giving us is beautiful... Turning towards the Nevola Valley we can see shining stars between some clouds...

While we were sitting and resting after a working evening spent to prepare an imminent Festa delle Streghe edition, in a total silence everybody of us was thinking...about witches... So, smiling, in this enchanted scenario, a group of friends thought about a witches competion...we were in 2001, Halloween in the new Millennium...We immediately took a pen and a piece of paper and wrote down our ideas...The text we wrote was:

"Inhabitans of all over the world, without any distinction of age, sex and provenance...We had the Medieval witch wearing cloths and buried in the fire, we already had the 1970's witch who were a strong femminist...but...HOW DO YOU IMAGINE THE WITCH OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM?" So the Miss Strega competion was born in 2001. From that evening this idea acquired a great success and an elevate qualitative level.

The first edition saw the involvment of the people of Corinaldo and of some shopkeeper of the town: what was asked to them was how they would have represented the new Witch.

In the following edition, we wanted to create something bigger and give a degree of reputation to Miss Strega...it was created a team to coordinate the competion...now Miss Strega was an event inside the Halloween event. The idea was to give to everybody the chance to be creative, to have a fantastic fashion show...not a fashion but a TALENT competition ! Strategic and efficent was the partnership with Confartigianato and Provicia of Ancona who believed in the importance and the opportunity of our idea. Thanks to them, many fashion institutes and schools wanted to partecipate; Pro Loco decided also to have a presenter/godmather for the event and called Elisa Triani, a nice tv soubrette. We also changed the scenario: Piazza del Cassero. It was a success: Pro Loco Corinaldo was called to partecipate to a live show on national tv Rai Uno to talk about Miss Strega competition. Corriere della Sera and Il Sole 24 Ore nominated Corinaldo as Italian Halloween Capital City to demonstrate the quality level of the whole event.

In 2003 Miss Strega brand became a registered trademark in order to be protected. Pro Loco Corinaldo is the owner of this trade mark; the presenter is Benedetta Massola, a national tv star.

In 2004 the presenter is the comedian Riccardo Rossi in company with former Miss Italia Denny Mendez and the competion sees the growing interest of the press and the media... it's already a national event !

In 2005 presenter was Antonio Stornaiolo with Big Brother beauty Carolina Marconi...we had 19 misses: the competition is a leading moment in a national context for what concerns fashion, creativity and entertainment.

We are in 2006: "Witches of the world join together!" is the slogan of this edition which was one of the best ever with 27 partecipants from all over the State, golden pumpkins on the stage on a silver scenario. Presenter was Marco Liorni from Big Brother in company with Ramona Badescu, romanian tv star.

And then comes the Moon: 2007. The partecipants had to prepare their dress thinking about the moon, a strange and magic entity. Marco Liorni was again the presenter with the sexy Antonella Mosetti as partner.

During last edition, in 2008, the theme was the Madness because, as Marcel Proust said, we are constricted to be foolish in order to better stand the reality...and Corinaldo, the craziest town of Italy, was the perfect context. We had 21 partecipants and the return of Antonio Stornaiolo as presenter together with tv star Hoara Borselli as Godmother.

And here we are: 2009..."One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star" 

Nietzsche gave us the inspiration for the theme: the stars. The Witch is worried and undecided, what's inside her? Darkness or light? Only the star inside can release her soul...will she be capable to do it??? Miss Strega 2009, welcome to the Dance of the Stars...