Music Festivals, from Paris to Turin

DRAWING ON A FRENCH FORMAT, THE FESTA DELLA MUSICA DI TORINO STARTS ON 17 JUNE. ORGANIZED BY BOCCONI ALUMNUS EMANUELE ROMAGNOLI, IT INVITES ONSTAGE ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PERFORM

In 2006, while in Paris with the Erasmus program, Emanuele Romagnoli fell in love with the Fête de la Musique which every June 21 fills the streets of the City of Light with dozens of concerts. “I could see it happening in a city with a strong musical tradition as Turin”. Today Romagnoli is President and Project Manager of the Festa della Musica in Turin, founded in 2012 by importing the French format. After a degree at the Polytechnic University of Turin, he attended in 2013-2014 the SDA Bocconi Master in Management for the Performing Arts (now Master in Arts Management and Administration). “It was a formative experience. The master gave me the theoretical and practical skills useful in the event management”.

In the Turin event the distance between performer and audience is reduced and ideally zeroed. There aren’t stages, all performances are held at ground level, in the tradition of busking. “The main thing is not the performance in itself, but the fact of practicing music. Everyone is invited to play, professionals who tour the world and people who strum their guitars alike. There are no style or age limitations, there is no selection process: anyone who wants to perform can book his space. It is a bottom-up event that sprouts from a cultural policy of full inclusion”. The first edition in 2012 was a single day festival done in partnership with the municipality; in 2016 the Festa della Musica is a four-day event (June 17-18-19-21) half of which is funded by private sponsors. “Managing cultural events is a complex and many-sided activity. You must play many roles and establish relationships with public institutions, private partners, residents, musicians. Turin has been able to build a network and today the Festa della Musica cooperates with the major cultural institutions of the city, from museums to the International book fair”.
 
 

by Claudio Todesco