The patron saint of Busseto is Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, celebrated on 24 August in the Collegiata di San Bartolomeo Apostolo, with the Sagra di San Bartolomeo, known in dialect as Sègra ad San Bartlamé.
Since roughly the mid-1800s, on the Sundays of January and February, the parades of the Busseto Carnival are held, with allegorical papier-mâché floats, masked walkers on foot, bands and majorettes. In the hamlet of Roncole Verdi, the famous composer Giuseppe Verdi was born on 10 October 1813; Busseto holds the Theatre and the National Museum dedicated to him.
