The patron of San Damiano d'Asti is Saint Roch, celebrated on 16 August in the chapel dedicated to him, in the district of the same name, Borgo San Rocco, one of the town's three large districts — along with Borgo Rondò and Borgo Piano — that grew up around its old centre.
San Damiano is one of seven municipalities that take part in the Palio di Asti, a festival that culminates on the first Sunday of September with a bareback horse race, without saddles, in piazza Alfieri in Asti, among a total of twenty-one participants made up of towns, city districts and boroughs. In earlier times, the confraternity of Saint Joseph of San Damiano won the Palio on 27 April 1749, with jockey Antonio Ranco; in modern times the town won it again in 2011, with jockey Massimo Coghe.
