Festivals in Italy

[Tom Lobo]

Are there big festivals in Italy, which are not in stadions?

 

I'm looking for a big or medium size festival in a cool location or on a cool ground.

 

Any  suggestions?

[cirez21]

hi! the question might be actually much harder to answer than it looks. 
I have no idea about the degree of information you have on the topic or whether you're italian or not, so my answer will be as if I was talking with someone who didn't know anything. apologies if I'll be redundant.

the biggest issue with Italy is that the country has a complete lack of festival culture. what are probably listed as italian biggest festivals (I'm guessing I-Days in Milan, Firenze Rocks and Lucca's Summer Festival) are "fake festivals", there is always only one stage with a supporting structure reminding of solo shows much more than a festival, the concerts are often in non-consecutive days and you'll hardly ever see multiple-day tickets being sold. these so called festivals are much more of a way to book acts going around european festivals by the usual italian biggest promoters, with Live Nation owning the former two and D'Alessandro & Galli the latter, and the third best, Vivo Concerti, that started doing something similar this year with their Milano Summer Festival. these four are the only places where you'll actually see all the biggest, stadium sized acts touring european festivals in the summer

talking about actual proper festivals, the biggest (and to a certain level, the only one) is Nameless Music Festival, a festival held near Lake Como. there are multiple stages, the location is quite amazing and it's growing year after year. the huge issue with this one is that it was born as (and the core audience is interested in) a strictly edm festival, so you'll see most acts in the mainstage being dj's and even though the organizers are trying to lean more towards other stuff with different kinds of acts (such as Justice, Kenya Grace, and 070 Shake in the past year), the response towards those has always been quite poor. the festival also has a second stage, but it's mainly for the biggest italian pop/hip hop acts

then you have Kappa Futur Festival in Turin, which is actually quite the big festival, but whereas Nameless is at least trying to lean towards something different than dj's, this is a strictly techno festival. if you liked techno you'd already know about it as it's one of the biggest in the world, if you don't like techno stay as far away as you can from this one ahah

 

last one to get a mention is Mi Ami in Milan, a strictly indie-rock festival with multiple stages etc but mostly filled with italian artists. they booked Phoenix last year but I feel like they were the only international act (might be wrong though)

 

and yeah I think that's pretty much it. there are a multitude of other smaller festivals, but they're mostly smaller versions of the biggest ones I've mentioned before, with usually just one stage etc. some names are La Prima Estate in Lido di Camaiore (indie/electronic), AMA in Bassano del Grappa, and Red Valley and Arabax in Sardinia (all three with a mix of electronic, pop, and rock acts). all of these are held in july/august, I'd suggest to give them a search but yeah, nothing groundbreaking

there are surely more than the mentioned, but I guess they're far smaller and I can't remember them off the top of my head currently
I hope I answered your question properly, feel free to ask anything if you want to know something more
:)

Edited October 26, 2024 by cirez21

[Tom Lobo]

  On 10/26/2024 at 7:56 PM, cirez21 said:

hi! the question might be actually much harder to answer than it looks. 
I have no idea about the degree of information you have on the topic or whether you're italian or not, so my answer will be as if I was talking with someone who didn't know anything. apologies if I'll be redundant.

the biggest issue with Italy is that the country has a complete lack of festival culture. what are probably listed as italian biggest festivals (I'm guessing I-Days in Milan, Firenze Rocks and Lucca's Summer Festival) are "fake festivals", there is always only one stage with a supporting structure reminding of solo shows much more than a festival, the concerts are often in non-consecutive days and you'll hardly ever see multiple-day tickets being sold. these so called festivals are much more of a way to book acts going around european festivals by the usual italian biggest promoters, with Live Nation owning the former two and D'Alessandro & Galli the latter, and the third best, Vivo Concerti, that started doing something similar this year with their Milano Summer Festival. these four are the only places where you'll actually see all the biggest, stadium sized acts touring european festivals in the summer

talking about actual proper festivals, the biggest (and to a certain level, the only one) is Nameless Music Festival, a festival held near Lake Como. there are multiple stages, the location is quite amazing and it's growing year after year. the huge issue with this one is that it was born as (and the core audience is interested in) a strictly edm festival, so you'll see most acts in the mainstage being dj's and even though the organizers are trying to lean more towards other stuff with different kinds of acts (such as Justice, Kenya Grace, and 070 Shake in the past year), the response towards those has always been quite poor. the festival also has a second stage, but it's mainly for the biggest italian pop/hip hop acts

then you have Kappa Futur Festival in Turin, which is actually quite the big festival, but whereas Nameless is at least trying to lean towards something different than dj's, this is a strictly techno festival. if you liked techno you'd already know about it as it's one of the biggest in the world, if you don't like techno stay as far away as you can from this one ahah

 

last one to get a mention is Mi Ami in Milan, a strictly indie-rock festival with multiple stages etc but mostly filled with italian artists. they booked Phoenix last year but I feel like they were the only international act (might be wrong though)

 

and yeah I think that's pretty much it. there are a multitude of other smaller festivals, but they're mostly smaller versions of the biggest ones I've mentioned before, with usually just one stage etc. some names are La Prima Estate in Lido di Camaiore (indie/electronic), AMA in Bassano del Grappa, and Red Valley and Arabax in Sardinia (all three with a mix of electronic, pop, and rock acts). all of these are held in july/august, I'd suggest to give them a search but yeah, nothing groundbreaking

there are surely more than the mentioned, but I guess they're far smaller and I can't remember them off the top of my head currently
I hope I answered your question properly, feel free to ask anything if you want to know something more
:)

Expand  

wooooow....what an answer.

 

so much infos, great. I wished that there would be a festival for me in italy. I´m from germany and the last 15 years I have been to Sziget 13 times and the last years also to werchter & last this year the first time to inmusic in zagreb.

 

But I wanted to go to a festival in italy. For the nice people, the great cappucinos, the food and the weather....

 

And now - with all your datas - I don´t think, that its an option for me. The only festival, that would be one for me is the one with only edm. I like some edm...but not much enough.

 

Thank you very much for your detailed answer. I think, that you are from italy? I can´t understand, that the italian people don´t have cool festivals. The most italians I met where cool people with a good relationship to music, especially livemusic.

 

So I have to look further on to some new spots....

[gigi21]

  On 10/26/2024 at 7:56 PM, cirez21 said:

hi! the question might be actually much harder to answer than it looks. 
I have no idea about the degree of information you have on the topic or whether you're italian or not, so my answer will be as if I was talking with someone who didn't know anything. apologies if I'll be redundant.

the biggest issue with Italy is that the country has a complete lack of festival culture. what are probably listed as italian biggest festivals (I'm guessing I-Days in Milan, Firenze Rocks and Lucca's Summer Festival) are "fake festivals", there is always only one stage with a supporting structure reminding of solo shows much more than a festival, the concerts are often in non-consecutive days and you'll hardly ever see multiple-day tickets being sold. these so called festivals are much more of a way to book acts going around european festivals by the usual italian biggest promoters, with Live Nation owning the former two and D'Alessandro & Galli the latter, and the third best, Vivo Concerti, that started doing something similar this year with their Milano Summer Festival. these four are the only places where you'll actually see all the biggest, stadium sized acts touring european festivals in the summer

talking about actual proper festivals, the biggest (and to a certain level, the only one) is Nameless Music Festival, a festival held near Lake Como. there are multiple stages, the location is quite amazing and it's growing year after year. the huge issue with this one is that it was born as (and the core audience is interested in) a strictly edm festival, so you'll see most acts in the mainstage being dj's and even though the organizers are trying to lean more towards other stuff with different kinds of acts (such as Justice, Kenya Grace, and 070 Shake in the past year), the response towards those has always been quite poor. the festival also has a second stage, but it's mainly for the biggest italian pop/hip hop acts

then you have Kappa Futur Festival in Turin, which is actually quite the big festival, but whereas Nameless is at least trying to lean towards something different than dj's, this is a strictly techno festival. if you liked techno you'd already know about it as it's one of the biggest in the world, if you don't like techno stay as far away as you can from this one ahah

 

last one to get a mention is Mi Ami in Milan, a strictly indie-rock festival with multiple stages etc but mostly filled with italian artists. they booked Phoenix last year but I feel like they were the only international act (might be wrong though)

 

and yeah I think that's pretty much it. there are a multitude of other smaller festivals, but they're mostly smaller versions of the biggest ones I've mentioned before, with usually just one stage etc. some names are La Prima Estate in Lido di Camaiore (indie/electronic), AMA in Bassano del Grappa, and Red Valley and Arabax in Sardinia (all three with a mix of electronic, pop, and rock acts). all of these are held in july/august, I'd suggest to give them a search but yeah, nothing groundbreaking

there are surely more than the mentioned, but I guess they're far smaller and I can't remember them off the top of my head currently
I hope I answered your question properly, feel free to ask anything if you want to know something more
🙂

Expand  

I'd also mention Ypsigrock, a nice boutique indie festival in Sicily in early August, C2C in Autumn in Turin (mainly electronic), Spring Attitude in Rome in September.

But they're all small festivals

[charlierc]

I went to Milano Rocks in 2018 as a visitor to Italy and it was billed and organised as a festival but yeah, as said above, it is a one stage environment that was to facilitate 3 concerts. I went to The National's day but there were also one day shows by Imagine Dragons and 30 Seconds to Mars.

 

Firenze Rocks and Milano i-Days have similar vibe by the look of them. I don't know if there's an option to buy tickets covering multiple days for these - seem to recall there was but given I went in 2018, memory's fuzzy on that score.

[gigi21]

  On 10/27/2024 at 9:36 AM, charlierc said:

I went to Milano Rocks in 2018 as a visitor to Italy and it was billed and organised as a festival but yeah, as said above, it is a one stage environment that was to facilitate 3 concerts. I went to The National's day but there were also one day shows by Imagine Dragons and 30 Seconds to Mars.

 

Firenze Rocks and Milano i-Days have similar vibe by the look of them. I don't know if there's an option to buy tickets covering multiple days for these - seem to recall there was but given I went in 2018, memory's fuzzy on that score.

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Yes, as said above, all the big italian "festivals" aren't proper festivals but a series of big events on one stage.

[charlierc]

  On 10/27/2024 at 11:09 AM, gigi21 said:

Yes, as said above, all the big italian "festivals" aren't proper festivals but a series of big events on one stage.

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Indeed. I can count that even from a one/off experience, but as an Italian based user, you'll be even more versed in this being the way in which they do business.

 

Seems even further back too. I remember there used to be a thing called Heineken Jammin' Festival, held first at the Imola race-track then in a park near Venice, and thought that would be closer but that seems to just be one stage only looking from reports at the time.

 

Certainly, I've seen stuff potentially of interest at Italian venues of late - I considered coming to see Green Day in Milan rather than Manchester as I eventually chose - and just looks like it's what we've said it is all along - single stage set-up masquerading as a festival.

[gigi21]

  On 10/27/2024 at 12:23 PM, charlierc said:

Indeed. I can count that even from a one/off experience, but as an Italian based user, you'll be even more versed in this being the way in which they do business.

 

Seems even further back too. I remember there used to be a thing called Heineken Jammin' Festival, held first at the Imola race-track then in a park near Venice, and thought that would be closer but that seems to just be one stage only looking from reports at the time.

 

Certainly, I've seen stuff potentially of interest at Italian venues of late - I considered coming to see Green Day in Milan rather than Manchester as I eventually chose - and just looks like it's what we've said it is all along - single stage set-up masquerading as a festival.

Expand  

I've been at Heineken Jammin Festival and yes, it was in a big park but with only one stage. At least it was a full weekend with 6-7 shows per day and gates opening in the morning. Now we lost even this kind of events...

[activean]

I went to Home festival back in 2018, near Venice. 

It had multiple stages and a decent festival vibe, it had a potencial to be a solid 20+k festival.

Sadly, it's not organised anymore. 

 

Found this two daily lineup posters, to get the idea. 

[Tom Lobo]

Yes, I had an eye on home festival in this time. It sounded great. But....it's gone...

 

I was in Zagreb this year. To inmusic. The place ist cool on a lakeside. A medium size indie Festival with 2-3 stages.

 

But I missed a bit of other stuff between the lines of the festival. And Zagreb had such a bad atmosphere... nothing comparing to the beautiful cities in Italy.

 

 

 

[DDave]

I was looking to go to La Prima Estate this year. Only 4 bands a night but looked a great setting for a festival, was fairly cheap. Unfortunately the organisers announced a lot of the lineup really late and the overall communication was poor. It clashed with the Euros as well which didn't help them either (Italy played a game at 8pm when the festival was on) which led to them putting a really cheap lineup for that day. 

 

Pity really, could have been a great weekend, with a bit of sightseeing included. 

Edited October 28, 2024 by DDave

[Tom Lobo]

  On 10/28/2024 at 4:01 PM, DDave said:

I was looking to go to La Prima Estate this year. Only 4 bands a night but looked a great setting for a festival, was fairly cheap. Unfortunately the organisers announced a lot of the lineup really late and the overall communication was poor. It clashed with the Euros as well which didn't help them either (Italy played a game at 8pm when the festival was on) which led to them putting a really cheap lineup for that day. 

 

Pity really, could have been a great weekend, with a bit of sightseeing included. 

Expand  

That one lookes cool. They do 2 weekends and the location is in the near of Pisa. Nice Spot at the sea.

[Kilre]

  On 10/26/2024 at 7:56 PM, cirez21 said:

hi! the question might be actually much harder to answer than it looks. 
I have no idea about the degree of information you have on the topic or whether you're italian or not, so my answer will be as if I was talking with someone who didn't know anything. apologies if I'll be redundant.

the biggest issue with Italy is that the country has a complete lack of festival culture. what are probably listed as italian biggest festivals (I'm guessing I-Days in Milan, Firenze Rocks and Lucca's Summer Festival) are "fake festivals", there is always only one stage with a supporting structure reminding of solo shows much more than a festival, the concerts are often in non-consecutive days and you'll hardly ever see multiple-day tickets being sold. these so called festivals are much more of a way to book acts going around european festivals by the usual italian biggest promoters, with Live Nation owning the former two and D'Alessandro & Galli the latter, and the third best, Vivo Concerti, that started doing something similar this year with their Milano Summer Festival. these four are the only places where you'll actually see all the biggest, stadium sized acts touring european festivals in the summer

talking about actual proper festivals, the biggest (and to a certain level, the only one) is Nameless Music Festival, a festival held near Lake Como. there are multiple stages, the location is quite amazing and it's growing year after year. the huge issue with this one is that it was born as (and the core audience is interested in) a strictly edm festival, so you'll see most acts in the mainstage being dj's and even though the organizers are trying to lean more towards other stuff with different kinds of acts (such as Justice, Kenya Grace, and 070 Shake in the past year), the response towards those has always been quite poor. the festival also has a second stage, but it's mainly for the biggest italian pop/hip hop acts

then you have Kappa Futur Festival in Turin, which is actually quite the big festival, but whereas Nameless is at least trying to lean towards something different than dj's, this is a strictly techno festival. if you liked techno you'd already know about it as it's one of the biggest in the world, if you don't like techno stay as far away as you can from this one ahah

 

last one to get a mention is Mi Ami in Milan, a strictly indie-rock festival with multiple stages etc but mostly filled with italian artists. they booked Phoenix last year but I feel like they were the only international act (might be wrong though)

 

and yeah I think that's pretty much it. there are a multitude of other smaller festivals, but they're mostly smaller versions of the biggest ones I've mentioned before, with usually just one stage etc. some names are La Prima Estate in Lido di Camaiore (indie/electronic), AMA in Bassano del Grappa, and Red Valley and Arabax in Sardinia (all three with a mix of electronic, pop, and rock acts). all of these are held in july/august, I'd suggest to give them a search but yeah, nothing groundbreaking

there are surely more than the mentioned, but I guess they're far smaller and I can't remember them off the top of my head currently
I hope I answered your question properly, feel free to ask anything if you want to know something more
🙂

Expand  

unfortunately this is the reality. Italian festival go-ers must take a plane to go to a festival. With my friends we always discussed on why there is this culture: some say it's because we started late to do concerts (there was not this culture during the 70s/80s, so we are basically 20 years behind everyone else), some say it's the culture in general, i honestly don't know

It's a pity, because bringing music tourism too, in italy, would really step up the game here (imho)
 

[alan_ts]

  On 11/4/2024 at 1:26 PM, Kilre said:

unfortunately this is the reality. Italian festival go-ers must take a plane to go to a festival. With my friends we always discussed on why there is this culture: some say it's because we started late to do concerts (there was not this culture during the 70s/80s, so we are basically 20 years behind everyone else), some say it's the culture in general, i honestly don't know

It's a pity, because bringing music tourism too, in italy, would really step up the game here (imho)
 

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https://www.ilpost.it/2022/10/19/festival-musica-italia/

 

https://www.internazionale.it/bloc-notes/giovanni-ansaldo/2017/11/01/concerti-festival-musica-italia

 

Two articles than explain and analyse why we haven't major festivals.

 

[Kusy]

Firenze teasing GNR

[Rico_Pliskin]

  On 12/8/2024 at 2:07 PM, Kusy said:

Firenze teasing GNR

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I don't think you could call that a tease.

 

That's a confirmation 

[Kusy]

Heard some recordings from their 2023 concerts and my lord, it is dreadful 

[charlierc]

  On 12/8/2024 at 2:20 PM, Rico_Pliskin said:

I don't think you could call that a tease.

 

That's a confirmation 

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Last week I got adverts for a Mastercard presale for a Guns N Roses UK tour in June 2025. I'm assuming these went live earlier than they should do, but looks like between that and this, an announcement should be imminent.

[DDave]

La Prima Estate's first names for Weekend 1. Only 4 bands per night so not many more to come but that's a great line up for 90 euros, right by the beach too

Edited January 30 by DDave

[gigi21]

  On 1/30/2025 at 11:30 AM, DDave said:

La Prima Estate's first names for Weekend 1. Only 4 bands per night so not many more to come but that's a great line up for 90 euros, right by the beach too

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probably only few Italian acts to be added but still good poster for a boutique festival on the sea in Tuscany 

[joselito]

  On 1/30/2025 at 11:42 AM, gigi21 said:

probably only few Italian acts to be added but still good poster for a boutique festival on the sea in Tuscany 

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How is this city? Only a normal city on the beach? Any attractions, seafood, etc? I saw that is near Pisa and Lucca. Maybe a good option with a Toscana trip.

[joselito]

  On 1/30/2025 at 11:30 AM, DDave said:

La Prima Estate's first names for Weekend 1. Only 4 bands per night so not many more to come but that's a great line up for 90 euros, right by the beach too

Expand  

Excellent undercard, despite the boring headliner.

[gigi21]

  On 1/31/2025 at 11:58 PM, joselito said:

How is this city? Only a normal city on the beach? Any attractions, seafood, etc? I saw that is near Pisa and Lucca. Maybe a good option with a Toscana trip.

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It's just big beaches and houses, hotels, restaurants near the beach. Pisa and Lucca definitely worth a visit and there's an International Airport near Pisa. I know there are buses and trains but I'm not sure about how efficients the public transports are, I've only been in that area by car.

Don't know much about the festival organization.

Edited February 1 by gigi21