On August 16th Sutivan celebrates its day and the feast of Saint Roch (Rocco).
The tradition has existed since the 17th century when the church of Saint Roch was built after Sutivan was devastated by the plague on several occasions. Since then, Saint Roch protects Sutivan from the plague, and the residents organize a procession and celebration in his honour.
The traditional folk festival is full of events from early morning. It is especially festive in the evening with lots of fun, live music and cannon shots fired in honour of Saint Roch.
The tradition of cannon shooting has also been going on for centuries and takes place every year on August 15 and 16.
Besides the famous Stivan cannon, there is also a legend about the Brač fig cannon with which the locals shoot the Omiš pirates, who terrorized Brač for years.
Legend says that locals, in the absence of steel, made a wooden cannon from a fig tree to defend itself. During the first attempt to fire against pirates, the cannon exploded and killed several Brač gunners. The survivors thought that there must be many more dead pirates when the shot was so strong and killed several gunners. Several days later a man from Brač went to Omiš and came across a funeral. Upon returning to Brač, thinking that they were pirates who were killed by a cannon, he reported that they are still burying the dead.
