Casei Medievale was a name of a festival. It was nothing special, there were tents, vendors, re-enactment groups, some tournaments, so the usual stuff. The "Tickle Troupe" participated in it and it was even quite a highlight of this festival. But unlike in Canelli, they weren't only tickling people for not buying tickets, but it was a whole show called "LA DISFIDA DELLE STREGHE". I once found the post describing the rules, so here it is (translated form Italian)":
Rules for the "Witches' Challenge" Game
For the 2015 edition of Casei Medievale, there will be an attraction partially tested last year, which has been incorporated as an integral part of this year's show.
The attraction, with its light-hearted and playful tone, is designed to further engage audiences who aren't necessarily exclusively interested in the fighting, but come to sample local libations and witness something different. At the same time, even those who usually "support" the actual warriors will have the opportunity to participate more actively in the event.
Therefore:
• Each group must nominate two (or even just one, depending on the number of registered groups) young and friendly volunteer witches who will be subjected to tickling torture on Saturday in the pillory. The audience will judge their laughter, screams, and cries of repentance for their witchcraft activities. During this challenge, members of the audience will be randomly selected from time to time to further engage them and also to lengthen the skit.
• For small groups, it is possible to "borrow" volunteers from a friendly group; obviously, they cannot be the same ones competing for the native group.
• It is also possible to ask girls in the audience to voluntarily compete in the game under the aegis of the group; in this case, their scores will be averaged with those of the official contestants. This ploy serves to further engage the audience.
The challenge with all the contestants will take place on Saturday afternoon, to increase the attraction points during the event. Since the game only works well if the girls laugh and scream, any groups that provide unresponsive witches will be banished from the entire Oltrepò area for seven generations, their belongings confiscated, and their camps burned to the ground.
I'm not exactly sure what the controversy was, but some groups posted many photos from this evet, and my guess is some people started sending them creepy messages or demanding more footage. But as I said, I'm not sure if that was a case. Because otherwise it seemed that both viewers and woman being tickled really enjoy this, and I believe it continued till the covid pandemic.