Summer 2023: all the must-see events in Italy among music and folklore

Summer has already started to heat up its engines all over the Italian peninsula. So let's enjoy the starry nights and long sunny days among live music and good food. The great summer rock festivals have already set up their stages and turned on their speakers. Rock in Roma, Firenze Rocks, Lucca Summer Festival and many others set the Italian summer on fire. However, we want to discover a few gems, large and small, known but also hidden, that will make your summer truly special!

The highest-altitude Celtic art, culture and music festival in Europe will take place in the beautiful setting of Valle D'Aosta. The idea was born in 1997 by a group of Celtic culture enthusiasts with the aim of reviving the atmosphere of Celtic times.

The festival starts for the summer solstice on 21 and 22 June in Aosta and continues from 29 June to 2 July, mainly in Val Veny, in the Peuterey forest, but also in Courmayeur with games, dances, a craft market, conferences, workshops and concerts, dance stages, music courses and stories around the fire. A magical event among trees of a centuries-old forest or the walls of an ancient fort, that combines past and present between the magical atmospheres of the harp and Scottish bagpipes, Irish dances and ancient legends.

The 35th edition of Mercantia - Festival Internazionale del Quarto Teatro, one of the major Italian and international events dedicated to live performances and street theatre, returns to Certaldo, the birthplace of Boccaccio in the province of Florence.

As usual, there will be plenty of dance, music, juggling, circus arts and handicrafts. Forty theatre companies and more than 100 artists will meet in the characteristic Tuscan village from 12 to 16 July to enliven the streets, alleyways, squares and crypts for five days of magic, amazement and imagination.

On the same topic of street performers, the world's number one street artist festival takes place every year in Ferrara. The Buskers Festival opens on 22 August in Comacchio with a big party and continues in Ferrara from 23 to 27 August to unite, as in the past thirty years, art, music and different cultures. Taking part in this event is a bit like going on a journey, it is an experience in which at every step you can discover a new world. An original and authentic journey capable of involving and enchanting thousands of spectators, leading them to the discovery of street art, that made "a hat" the symbol of an exchange between the artist and the audience.

Ferrara Buskers Festival is not only musical performances, but also talks, workshops for adults and children, crafts and exhibitions.

From August to September, the world's most beautiful mountain music festival takes place in Trentino-Alto Adige. Music and nature meet on this special occasion on the natural stages of the Dolomites. Musicians and audience walk together up the paths between meadows and peaks to perform right under the clouds in a dialogue with nature and its sounds.

From 23 August to 1 October, the programme brings internationally renowned music and performances near mountain huts, alpine pastures and forts in picturesque locations that can be reached on foot along hiking trails. Some shows start at dawn, others end late at night.

On stage this year Frida Bollani Magoni on 30 August, Jack Savoretti on 16 September and the Quartetto della Scala on 21 September. Three days of trekking from 22 to 24 September in Val di Fassa will alternate walking, nature and jazz music with Paolo Fresu's trumpet, musician Daniele di Bonaventura and Pierpaolo Vacca's organetto. On 30 September there will be the Banda Osiris show and, to close the festival, Carmen Consoli on 1 October.

From 21 to 30 July Cividale del Friuli will host the 32nd edition of Mittelfest, a multidisciplinary festival of theatre, music, dance, and circus of the Central European and Balkan area. This year’s topic is the 'Unavoidable' with 29 artistic projects from 12 countries, including 14 national premieres. The festival mixes languages and eras to offer original insights into the future with a focus on families, who form the audience of tomorrow.

This festival opens and closes with two concerts, then there will be three touring shows in which the spectator becomes part of the creation, and also circus, theatre and poetry shows.

The black Stromboli island among the Aeolian Islands in Sicily hosts from 24 June to 3 July a unique event on the Italian and international cultural scene. The Eco-logical Theatre Festival focuses on the environment as both a poetic and practical choice and invites scientists, artists, philosophers, archaeologists, volcanologists, astrologers, and intellectuals to the island for a nine-day adventure among sky, earth and sea, literally pulling the plug.

The festival represents a unique opportunity for contact between man and nature, artist and spectator, without electricity and therefore no technological artifice, to make the human being interlocutor with nature. The performances take place in the open air, without microphones or loudspeakers, even in an unpredictable way, on beaches where people sunbathe, and the audience becomes the protagonist. This is a special opportunity to experience the island in an unusual way and to visit places that are normally not always accessible.

From 4 to 6 August, the seventh edition of FRAC will take place in Lamezia Terme, a cultural event that acts as a meeting point between contemporary arts, new languages of the international scene and territory. This year's edition will take place in the Benedictine Abbey of Sant'Eufemia in Lamezia Terme, one of the largest religious complexes in Europe, dating back to 1062. Among its ruins, the creative proposals range from visual to performing art, live-audio video, live shows and electronic DJ sets with internationally renowned performers. But the focus remains on the environmental and natural context discovered through yoga practices, hiking and activities related to the area. Performances begin at dusk and end at dawn. Three days of concerts, performances, activities, excursions, installations, sociability, entertainment and sweet pleasures.

Taranta Night is the largest festival in Italy and one of the most significant events on popular culture in Europe. It takes place in Salento and is dedicated to the rediscovery and enhancement of traditional Salento music and its fusion with other musical languages, from rock to jazz and symphonic music.

It is a travelling festival that involves the most representative groups of the Salento pizzica scene and attracts a total of almost one hundred thousand spectators. The festival ends with the “Concertone finale” in Melpignano (LE) on 26 August. The concert is conducted by a Maestro Concertatore, who this year will be Fiorella Mannoia, invited to reinterpret the 'classics' local musical tradition together with a group of around thirty of the best musicians in Salento and exceptional guests from the national and international scene.

Festival dei Due Mondi raises this year his curtain on the 66th edition, from 23 June to 9 July 2023. The festival mixes music, opera, dance, theatre and art for three weeks thanks to the creativity of the best international artists and companies. The audience can experience a dialogue between various disciplines and the contamination of genres. The top-level cast includes artists such as Silvia Costa and Laetitia Casta with two new musical theatre projects. The theatre looks at Italian directors and performers such as Leonardo Lidi, Silvio Orlando and Alessandro Baricco who directs Stefania Rocca and Valeria Solarino.

Around the official playbill, side events and special events make Spoleto a living place of artistic creation.

It’s finally back after the stop due to Covid, the traditional medieval re-enactment of Monteriggioni. It all starts on 6 July, with the medieval banquet, which will not just be a dinner, but a real show based on typical medieval dishes with the entertainment of jesters, musicians and dancers performing in period costumes and instruments. Also the audience can wear medieval costumes for the occasion, making the experience even more enthralling.

The events continues until 9 July celebrating the Middle Ages with re-enactments, craft market, parades in historical dress, performances in squares and taverns, ancient crafts and street entertainment.

From 6 to 10 September strong palates and lovers of 'spicy' flavours meet in Diamante, Calabria, for the traditional Peperoncino Festival. It will be five days of festivities with shows, exhibitions, medical conferences, cartoons in the ring, and the historic final of the 'Italian chilli-eating championship'!

The Cous Cous Fest is renewed again this year in San Vito Lo Capo, in the province of Trapani, from 15 to 24 September, an event that unites different cultures in the name of good food, peace, exchange and multiculturalism.

Couscous, a dish typical of the area and widespread in the Maghreb area, a poor ingredient rooted in the Mediterranean, is recognised as intangible heritage of humanity by Unesco, and is a dish with a great symbolic value of peace and union. For the festival, the town will host chefs from all over the world and artists with cooking challenges, tastings and cultural meetings, but also music concerts, events and demonstrations for children and cooking shows.

The Cous Cous World Championship is the heart of the festival, its most cheerful and colourful soul for a challenge that has the flavour of integration. At the gastronomic village there will be the opportunity to taste cous cous recipes from all over the world. The cooking show programme will see the major protagonists of Italian and international cuisine on stage. The festival's big stage, set up on the beach, will host big concerts and free shows including, the first date announced, on Thursday 21 September Lo Stato Sociale.

In Alba, in the province of Cuneo, the Agrirock Festival Collisioni is backs for the 2023 edition from 7 to 30 July. Every year, great Italian and international artists take the stage in this town for pleasant summer evenings with many concerts and auteur events.

The festival starts on 7 July with Lazza, Geolier and Ernia, on 8 July on stage there will be Sfera Ebbasta, and on 9 July, the only date in Piedmont for Articolo 31 with the 90s party and dance music by Albertino, Fargetta, Prezioso and Molella djs. The irresistible Checco Zalone will be on stage on 16 July, and Mr Rain on 20 July, concluding on 30 July with the Diodato concert.

It seems unbelievable, yet the Umbria Jazz Festival turns 50 this year, remaining as relevant as ever. This is thanks to musicians from all over the world and an ever-participating and curious audience.

The formula remains the same: 'three festivals in one'. The first festival at the Santa Giuliana Arena hosts the big events in jazz and beyond and attracts the largest audience. No surprise with names like Bob Dylan (7 July), Stefano Bollani (8 July), Mika (10 July) and Ben Harper (13 July)

The second festival is at the Teatro Morlacchi, reserved for jazz lovers in a more intimate, acoustic setting.

The third festival takes place in the streets and squares and is therefore open and free. In addition to music, there is good food, a space for young musicians and for children.

Among the events not to be missed for summer 2023 in Italy there is the Palio di Siena, which takes place, as every year in the Tuscan city on 2 July and 16 August. During the Palio, the 'contrade', or neighborhoods, of the city compete in a passionate horse race in Piazza del Campo. There are 17 'contrade', each marked by a coat of arms with its own colours. For the occasion, each contrada is coloured in its own colours with flags and coats of arms distributed throughout the streets. There are two events: the Palio di Provenzano (in honour of Our Lady of Provenzano) on 2 July and the Palio dell'Assunta (in honour of the Assumption of Mary) on 16 August.

The Palio race is preceded by a procession with over 600 participants representing the 17 contrade. The actual race consists of three laps of Piazza del Campo with horses ridden by bareback jockeys, i.e. without a saddle.

For the Sienese, Palio is much more than a simple horse race, it is part of their life and its organization lasts the whole year. It is an event experienced with great passion and enthusiasm, you will realize this immediately!