The experience of is renewed for the sixth year SOLIDthe network that brings together the three prestigious Emilia-Romagna festivals Ferrara Sotto Le Stelle, Arti Vive Festival and Acieloaperto.
A widespread and inclusive network that is a determined promoter of an innovative festival idea: collaborative and participatory, attentive to the territory it inhabits and the realities that surround it.
Strengthened by the positive experience of the first three-year period 2021/2023 and the first two years of the current three-year period 2024/2026, made possible by the financing of the law 2/2018 of the Emilia-Romagna Region relating to the development of the music sector and thanks to the support ofEmilia-Romagna Music Commission, SOLIDO continues to design a virtuous and effective model of cooperation between festivals.
FESTIVAL
From this perspective the FESTIVAL, the autumn event hosted in one of the cities of the three events involved in the network. It will be in 2026 on 27 and 28 November in Soliera (MO) and, in this sixth edition, it evolves into a more compact and operational format: a microconference/showcase festival capable of combining professional discussion, musical discovery and networking.
Live, talks and discussion tables will alternate a weekend of working and listening dedicated to live musicdesigned to connect festivals, artists, agencies, labels, institutions and cultural operators. A territorial platform (but not only) that aims to create relationships, contents and possible forms of circulation between subjects who share structural problems and similar perspectives, coordinating the processes according to the values expressed by SOLIDO in these years of activity and comparison.
SOLID
“Over the years SOLIDO has demonstrated that collaboration between festivals can become a concrete tool for growth for the regional music system”. He declares Emilia-Romagna Music Commission. “The ability to share skills, build relationships and generate opportunities for discussion between operators, artists and territories represents one of the most significant aspects of this experience. It is also for this reason that Emilia-Romagna Music Commission supports the path, recognizing in the network a model capable of strengthening the music supply chain, encouraging the circulation of skills and creating new opportunities for artists and professionals in the sector”.
“SOLIDO demonstrates that creating culture together is possible and necessary. For Soliera and the Campori Foundation, hosting the Festivalino means offering the territory a space for open discussion, in which festivals, artists and audiences recognize themselves in a shared community. This is how live music continues to generate relationships, critical thinking and belonging”he states Luca Cantellidirector of the Campori Foundation.
“SOLIDO is the expression of a true active collaboration between three different festivals: three former competitors, each with their own identity, but who share a common vision that focuses on the relationship between promoters, artists, public and local reality”he adds Matteo Gozziartistic director of Arti Vive Festival.
“The festivals I love aren't the ones that try to be the biggest. They're the ones that manage to be necessary.” He states Corrado Nuccini, artistic director of Ferrara Sotto le Stelle. “Places where a community meets, recognizes itself and continues to produce culture. In a time that tends to standardize languages, consumption and imagination, the task of a festival is to preserve a difference. This is why SOLIDO is important: it does not put together three festivals to make them the same, but to allow each to remain itself”.
“For six years SOLIDO has been trying to demonstrate that there is another way of doing festivals: less competitive and more collaborative. Ferrara Sotto le Stelle, Arti Vive and acieloaperto maintain different identities but share a common vision, building opportunities for artists, operators and territories”. He declares Piero Mantengoliartistic director of acieloaperto. “Festivalino was born precisely from this need: to create a space where relationships matter as much as events and where music becomes a tool for building communities and the future”.
Born spontaneously in 2020, evolving and expanding year after year, with SOLIDO for the first time in Emilia-Romagna three important exhibitions meet to build together an imaginary and a path, sharing ideas, values and intentions in a perspective of continuous joint growth, increasingly structured and far-sighted.
Artistic identity, gender-balance, representativeness, accessibility, environmental and economic sustainability, quality, digital culture, inclusiveness and territorial rooting the key words to define the identity of the network are confirmed.
In an increasingly individualistic, competitive and fragmented historical moment, SOLIDO points in the opposite direction, giving shape to a space for open discussion, which aims to challenge the dominant logic that tends to reduce culture to a ranking, line-ups to a goal, artists to a trophy to be exhibited.
SOLIDO in fact strongly supports the idea that festivals are first and foremost gods cultural principals: places that build relationships and train the public, which create meeting opportunities and generate critical thinking and belonging. Living organisms, with their own voice, their own history, their own community of reference: capable of changing without conforming to a pre-established model or format, and which have value because they are rooted in and in dialogue with a territory.
For this reason SOLIDO has always collaborated with local authorities, associations, clubs and venues throughout the Region, creating a series of initiatives that also support the growth and creativity of Emilia-Romagna.
Ferrara Under the Stars, Arts Vive Festival And Open air they therefore continue to intertwine their paths in a constructive and collaborative way, keeping their specific identities intact but working in synergy to create a shared cultural humus, capable of making the most of music and the territory.
This is demonstrated in practice by three different line-ups which nevertheless reflect the desire to bring the best of international and national music to Emilia-Romagna, without forgetting the most interesting names of regional creativity.
ARTI VIVE FESTIVAL
Music, theater and performances return to the heart of Emilia with the nineteenth edition Of ARTI VIVE FESTIVALscheduled from 2 to 5 July in Soliera (MO). On the musical front we start on 2nd July with the Dublin garage band Sprints and the post-punk of the The Underground Youth; On 3 July, English rock will be the protagonist These News Puritansthe combination of jazz, psychedelia and krautrock by the French Tagus Magician and the shoegaze made in the Po Valley Satanango. On July 4th there will be space for the engaging funk of Nico Arezzoto the energy of Thousandto the Italian/Argentine duo Zara Colombo and to the disruptive Boiling Lagoon. Finally, July 5th is the turn of the intimate and intense live shows of I'm a dog And Lacana. Ample space is also reserved for musical projects from Emilia Romagna: on stage the female power duo of Tacobellas (July 2), the Tristitropics (3 July), a band formed from a project promoted by the festival in 2019, he Hackouts! (5 July), which move between free jazz and experimentation.
FERRARA UNDER THE STARS
The thirtieth edition of FERRARA UNDER THE STARS is scheduled from 22 to 30 July between Courtyard of the Estense Castle citizen and the Delizia Estense of Benvignante, surrounded by greenery in Argenta (FE)and confirms the event as one of the longest-running in Italy: a reality that continues to grow and expand, involving new spaces, new times and new sounds. It starts on July 22nd at the Estense Castle with the dense and sweaty rock of The Ministers preceded by the electronic-experimental band from Emilia LOSTATOBRADO. On July 23rd there will be space for the multifaceted German band The Notwist previewed by the live performance of Banadisaa project by the Ferrara-based Venetian singer-songwriter Diego Franchini. On July 25th it is the turn of the concert Emma Nolde, one of the most powerful and refined pens around, anticipated by the singer-songwriter from Ferrara Marta Guidoboni. The festival then moves to Estense delight from Benvignante: on stage Kings of Convenience (28 July), among the most recognizable and loved groups of European indie pop; Marlene Kuntz (July 29), on tour to celebrate thirty years of the album “Il Vile”; and the iconic French world music band Les Négresses Vertes (July 30).
OPEN AIR
OPEN AIRarrived at his fourteenth editionbranches off into Romagna from June 28th to August 23rd to the rhythm of his slogan “Hearts on fire – the music still burns”. It starts on June 28th in the suggestive Malatesta Fortress of Cesena with the ancestral rhythms of La Nina for its only date in Emilia-Romagna, anticipated by the performances of the multifaceted singer-songwriter from Fidentia Glomari and the eclectic Alex Fernet. On July 5th Ponente Park in Cesenatico instead it will be the setting for the evocative concert at dawn Cosmos, followed by DJ sets Leonar And Holy patience. On July 8th we return to Malatesta Fortress for the live performances of Tyler Ballgame with its “new vintage” rock and Nico Arezzo, while they arrive on July 27th the dogs, Niccolò Contessa's cult band, anticipated by the sets of Zara Colombo And Marco Fracasia. On July 28th there will be space for the indie rock charisma of the Londoners White Lies and to the fiery quartet of Bleech 9:3. The Romagna players start Asianoia directly from Ravenna. The Santa Sofia River Park (FC) will host the live performance of Mannarino anticipated come on Tresca y Tigre and by the Neapolitans Afterlife Chivalà. THE Subsonic they light up on August 22nd Villa Torlonia of San Mauro Pascoli (FC) with the party for their thirty-year career. Opening, the Italian-Brazilian duo Hate Moss and the quartet Faceless. In the same location, the August 23 the Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist closes the festival Tash Sultanaanticipated by the live performances of Atabasca with their cinematic and Colombian funk Montoya.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
