The complete program of the twelfth edition of the Lars Rock Fest.
From 4 to 6 July 2025 at the public gardens, he returned to Chiusi, in the Valdichiana Senese, the Lars Rock Festthe three days of alternative music and culture to free admission organized by the volunteers and volunteers of the GEC – Side effects group.
This year the union of the municipalities of the Valdichiana Senese is the Tuscan capital of culture And in this important celebration, once again, the Lars Rock Fest He will show all his innate aptitude to network in the territory with always different realities.
The Lars Rock Fest In fact, it is more than a festival, it is an independent cultural project that since 2012 grows by leaning on two points of strength and fundamental identities: its billboard and its community spirit.
The Festival line-up is a fundamental element of research and extremely recognizable and brings, with free admission, in closed the best of the international alternative scene.
The spirit of community is the totalizing aspect of the events that accompanies the public of all ages from 5 pm on each afternoon.
Protagonists of the billboard of Lars Rock Fest 2025 They will be 9 bands once again selected by the artistic director, Marek Lukasik.
The task of opening the first evening of Friday 4th July will be up to the British Cucamarasfour musicians from the indie/post-punk scene originally from Nottingham who are imposing themselves with authority in the new wave of alternative guitar music. We remain in England because they will be the Italy 90 The latter to climb on the stage of the public gardens of Chiusi. Once Quartetto, now Trio, the band returns to the live scene with a modified formation. The headliners of the evening will be Mcluskythe Gallese trio of punk and indie rock extraction, appeared for the first time on the scene in 1998. In September 2023 the band published an EP of four songs, their first release after 19 years, which anticipated the release in May 2025 of the new album on the Ipecac Recordings by Mike Patton called The world is still here and so are we.
Folksinger and songwriter of American worship, as well as authentic Troubadour always looking for new experiences and new vibrations despite the almost 30 years of career, Joseph Arthur He will be the protagonist of the Matinê on Saturday 5 July in the old city of Chiusi, a concert part of the project Sounds from the labyrinth In collaboration with the Union of Municipalities of the Valdichiana Senese on the occasion of Valdichiana 2025 Tuscan capital of culture; The event will be accompanied by a free visit to the Etruscan tunnels of Chiusi, the famous labyrinth of Porsenna.
It will open the evening concerts Lostatbradthe Bolognese trio in the balance between electronic experimentation and collective sound improvisation highlighted in the last edition of the Rock Contesthistorical event linked to Counterroed of Florence with which the Lars Rock Fest confirms the partnership this year too. To follow there will be the Australians Party Dozenexperimental noise-rock duo composed by the saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and the percussionist Jonathan Boulet capable of creating an explosive and unpredictable sound experience, and headliners Black Country, New Road“The best band in the world” for The Quietus, who will present “Forever Howlong”the studio album that follows “Ants from Up There” of 2022, which reached third place in the ranking in the United Kingdom by giving the band the second top 5 in 12 months after their lucky record debut. Now, on the third studio album, the band is again building another miraculous musical transformation from scratch.
The grand finale is entrusted to the Londoners The Heliocentrics and to the Americans Karate who will inflame the stage with their iconic live performances on Sunday 6 July.
The Heliocentrics For some time they mix a commemorative funk, jazz and psych mixture. Their 2007 debut album, “Out there” laid the foundations for their 2009 masterpiece, “Inspiration Information”, together with the musical legend Ethiopian Mulatu Astatke. Celebrated by public and critics, “Inspiration Information” was elected by Gilles Peterson Album of the year worldwide and was subsequently recommended by Jamie Cullum as one of the “Five essential jazz albums” to listen to.
THE Karate They were founded in Boston in 1993 by Geoff Farina, Eamonn Vitt and Gavin McCarthy. Jeff Goddard on bass was added to them in 1995. The group released six studio albums, two EPs, numerous singles and Splits 7 ″ between 1994 and 2005. On this path, from the punk roots, the group has ventured into a wide range of progressive indie experiments, including jazz-rock, post-cock and a unique version of slowcore. In 2020 an article by the Chicago Reader stressed that the karate albums had become rare and collectors' pieces. After this, with the help of longtime fans, the karate returned to the master's degree of their albums to reprint them and in the autumn of 2024 the band gave birth to light Make it fithis first unpublished album in the studio after Pockets of 2004.
With the quality and artistic research of the program of its twelfth edition, the Festival confirms the great attention to the contemporary international alternative panorama. Among the bands on the stage of the Festival in recent years we remember Wire, Gang of Four, The Pop Group, Public Service Broadcasting, Japandroids, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ProtomArtyr, Cloud Nothings, Metz, Wolfmother, Algiers, Porridge Radio, Nothing, Faust, Nower, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Crocodiles, Benefits, Ditz, Gilla Band and Fantastic Negrito.
Lars Rock Fest 2025 confirms this year the average partnership with Beatingthe music magazine of Rai Radio 3 Dedicated to the adventurous music of contemporaneity, from jazz to experimental electronics, from avant -garde black music to rock, with particular attention to record in novelties and Italian and international underground scenes. Battiti will broadcast extracts recorded by concerts in the coming months.
Continues and deepens the partnership with Counterpoint Florence and its historic competition Rock Contest. In addition to the presence on the stage of Lostatbradprotagonists of its 2024 edition, also this year Controradio will broadcast live from the Festival on Friday 4th and Saturday 5 July, telling the music, the characters and cultural contents of the Festival.
The Lars Rock Fest It does not end only with the musical aspect: a series of stimulating and creative collateral events, suitable for all ages, some also designed for the very young, fill the days and spaces of the festival.
The Side effects This year they will dedicate themselves to the theme of the body. In collaboration with the Perugino collective Becoming X In fact, a call was proposed open to all the artists and artists for a collective exhibition in the streets of Chiusi. Becoming X will then be engaged, like the other years, in live drawing during concerts. For girls and boys there are street art, readings aloud, recycling workshops.
Talks and activities on the theme of the body, declined in different aspects, from the migrant body to the non -compliant body, the fantastic body, will then be combined. Several exhibitions and many precious collaborations with the protagonists of the cultural ferment.
Also this year the Lars Rock Fest host Open Bookthe publishing festival in its independent forms, which in no way wants to be a book fair, but an all -round cultural moment that comes every year with a different face and declination.
There will be no shortage craft marketthe disc fair and of course therefreshment area With local products and traditional dishes with a vegetarian and vegan option.
DJ set of quality will accompany the public before, during and after the concerts.
The Lars Rock Fest He has started a path of sustainability of cultural events, is part of the Eco-Feste circuit, does not use disposable plastic and the water is distributed free of charge.
Worthy of note, to underline the attention of the festival towards the large audience who came from outside, the extreme utility of Lars Rock Shuttlethe free shuttle to move from Chiusi Centro Storico, from the FS station and from the campsite to the concert area ..
Developing Synergie is one of the key points of the Festival: over 150 Chiusi and surroundings, young and old and less young, are involved in the realization of the event. In addition, the Festival boasts important collaborations with different realities in the area, during the year even beyond the Festival.
All this is possible only thanks to the support and support of the Municipality of the city of Chiusi, with the Tuscany Region and private partners. Appointment then for 4, 5 and 6 July in Chiusi in the Valdichiana Senese, the Tuscan capital of culture, for the Lars Rock Fest 2025.
Linkr.ee/larsrockfest
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
