ITALIA WAVE LOVE FESTIVAL - Music and Art Fair - Florence, July 17th - 22nd 2007

Exclusive artists, upcoming italian bands, eighth line poetry and Martin Mystère, WaveCamp and Second Life, classical music at night, theatre in the mornings…Italia Wave comes to Florence! A festival that looks towards Europe featuring first-rate national and international guests. Scissor Sisters, Mika in an exclusive summer concert, The Good the Bad and the Queen in their only Italian date, Kaiser Chiefs, !!! (chk chk chk), Mando Diao in their only Italian date, Nitin Sawhney, Tinariwen, Chico Cesar, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, CSS, Gocoo from Japan performing in Italy for the first time, Cassius, Jimi Tenor. Italia Wave's stages also feature some of the greatest Italian musicians: Carmen Consoli, Vinicio Capossela, Avion Travel, Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, Casino Royale, the"Pass the Mic" Project. Important and significant participations like Bob Geldof and the Axè Association show from Brazil performed by the "meninos de rua".

Italia Wave Love Festival is all this and much more. Over 250 confirmed shows, events, meetings and workshops constantly increasing. Over 20 artists performing exclusively for Italia Wave, of which 3 are in their Italian premiere. A chance to share and grow culturally, sending a message from Florence to Italy and the rest of Europe. The whole world is represented on the festival's stages, from Mali to Sweden, from Peru to Russia. Italia Wave will be held in Florence from the 17th to the 22nd of July in continuity with 20 years of Arezzo Wave Love Festival and breaking the rules of festivals in our country: For the first time Italia Wave is presented as a European festival village. The heart of the festival will be in an area several acres wide in the municipality of Sesto Fiorentino, few km from Florence; all events, musical or otherwise, will be performed within this area. On the 17th of July, however, in the heart of the Tuscan capital, the beautiful Piazzale Michelangelo, the poliedric Indian composer Nitin Sawhney will perform the Italian premiere of his new and imposing work, already seen only in England and Australia , in a free concert where, accompanied by the Tuscany Regional Orchestra, new music will be added to the classic silent movie "A Throw of Dice" directed by Franz Osten.

Italia Wave shall remain a free festival for all those who access the festival area before 21:00 hours, thus confirming itself as the only European festival in the Yourope circuit (Roskilde Benicassim, Italia Wave, BAM, Gurtenfestival and others) to give its audience this possibility. After 21:00 hours, tickets can be purchased for only 10 euros. As we had already experimented in 2006, the "optional" ticket incentivates the audience to attend early evening shows featuring upcoming artists and the sounds of groups from all over the world.

Music starts in the morning with Toscana Wave, the first focus on today's Tuscan music, an event which valorises upcoming and independent Tuscan music, also featuring the band Corveleno as headliners. We continue with the Psycho Stage, where from the early afternoon until late at night winners of the contest for upcoming bands will alternate with bands chosen by the most important Italian musical media and guests like Shitdisco and Messer Chups, besides the names already mentioned. Our evenings will concentrate the largest amount of musical events: at the same time as the night edition of the Psycho stage and the renowned Main Stage where the main events will perform, and also The View, Naturally 7, Enter Shikari, The Hedrons, Joan as Police Woman, Leningrad from Russia and Tunng, a third show area will be present displaying sounds from the South of the World and the Mediterranean: Global Stage. This is one of the most important new elements of Italia Wave, here we will feature performances by K'Naan from Somalia, Susana Baca from Peru and Radio Dervish (Italy and Palestine). Connecting with the Global Stage, Italia Wave also presents a new international network called MedWave, a network for encountering and exchanging music within the Mediterranean which presents a series of showcases by bands from participating countries. The countries involved in this first year are Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, Lebanon and Palestine. Confirmed bands from these countries are at the moment 08001 (Spain) and Sud Sound System (Italy), other bands will add themselves thanks to a partnership with the international Sonicbids network, and will perform on the Global Stage.

The program for Elettrowave will be important and full of new elements: for starters, a new location few metres away from Italia Wave. Elettrowave's deejays will perform in the former industrial plant of Longinotti, a living example of industrial archaeology, formerly used as a deposit by the Theatre of Florence, also the location for scenes of the movie Hannibal filmed in Florence. Elettrowave 2007 presents a wide program divided in two areas. A lively external Square, with free entry, with deejays, skaters, performers and writers performing to the tune of London's latest dubstep with Dj Hatcha, the electronic hip hop of Rombi, the breaks of Baltta & Inesha, italian drum'n'bass from G rec. and Modulate, young turntable virtuoso Krime, Biga, Drelove e Milemmi representing the Florentine hip hop scene. Two areas will be present within the Ex Longinotti space: the Club and the Theatre. the Club proves its continuity with the past 15 years of electronica: dance music made with turntables and laptops while an enormous screen colours the space with moving images. Our content ranges from the elegant house music of Âme to the prince of minimal producers Zip. The Club will also leave space to the Challenge winners Claudio di Vito (best dj) and Influx (best vj). The Theatre is an enormous space which contains the live energy of a stage built like a futuristic theatre with high technological content, with interactive installations by BIP (Building Interactive Playground). Among guests, Cassius live, 10 musicians on stage and an amazing energy, perhaps one of the most interesting shows of the year, the performer Matthew Dear’s Big Hands and Jimi Tenor's house folk, and Kabu Kabu. Among other features, Qoobshots are present in partnership with Qoob.tv.

The final musical area is ClassicWave: a classical music program dedicated to night time, between the Twentieth Century and the past. Our inspiration is Ligeti, the composer chosen by Kubrick for many of his movies. The main objective of this area is to create a bridge between genres and Histories: Classicwave is the ideal panorama for such a project. And the night will be a sweet and welcoming environment. All musicians, members of the NemEnsemble, perform regularly at an international level, as they are among the stars of the Italian musical future: from Dillon to Attademo, up to Matteo Fossi and David Brutti, some of the best young musicians on the international scene.

Anything that is not music at the festival is called CultWave. CultWave represents comics, literature, theatre, contemporary art, cinema, cabaret, social commitment, web 2.0. The program of Cultwave gets richer every day, what follows are the events confirmed as of writing.

The ComicsWave section, dedicated to comics, is centred on the figure of Martin Mystère, the Detective Of Impossible created by Alfredo Castelli in 1982, who will celebrate his 25 years of publication at Italia Wave with a new and unpublished issue dedicated to Florence. The program, once again supported by Banca Etruria, will continue with encounters and round tables with international guests such as Bryan Talbot and Aleksandar Zograf, leading to a prestigious and spectacular event, the 24 Hour Italy Comics, a 24 hour comics creating marathon organized by lospaziobianco.it and Repubblica XL. Italia Wave will also publish an exclusive limited edition sketchbook from Bryan Talbot's "Alice in Sunderland" by Bryan Talbot, the remake of "Alice in wonderland" recently published in the UK to great critical appraise.

Italia Wave's literature takes shape in the Word Stage, keeping one eye on the future and the other on tradition. The writing collective Wu Ming will present their new and widely anticipated novel Manituana, followed by a reading with musical accompaniment, performed for the first time ever at the festival, titled "Pontiac" and realized with musicians Egle Sommacal and Paul Pieretto. Looking towards the past, Italia Wave dedicates a whole day to Eighth Line poetry in an attempt to give new attention and importance to this style, with an exciting and unusual mix of genres and generations. For the occasion, David Riondino, Carlo Monni, Altamente Logli, Realdo Tonti, Mauro Chechi, Emilio Meliani, Enrico Rustici and Ivo Mafucci will open a workshop for creating eighth line contrasts, explaining their origin, the techniques, the foundations and tricks for singing in eighth rhyme. The Word Stage will also host a show by Enrico Brizzi and Numero6, a complete reading of "The Catcher in the Rye" and the new Speak Corner space dedicated to editorial presentations.

The Cultwave area within the festival village will also have space for the cinema schedule of CineWave, placed in a suggestive nocturnal timetable and realized with help from the staff of Esterni, who also take care of the Milano Film Festival. Also at night, TeatroWave's shows will take place displaying an important showcase for Italian experimental theatre. Italia Wave's Theatre also emphasizes the importance of new young talents. An important cooperation with the Scenario association will allow us to host shows recommended by the Scenario Prize every morning at 12. ArtWave will also be present, Italia Wave's contemporary art: the art section presents the second edition of CAM - Cantiere Artistico Mobile, mobile artistic construction site. The project presents virtual artistic interventions, born from 3 workshops held by Giorgio Lupattelli, Nark Bkb and Sophie Usunier. During the festival one may access the "artist aggregation centres" via internet: a Web TV and two Social Networks. All this on www.italiawave.com Finally, cabaret performances will also be present with CabaWave.

The true revolution of Italia Wave, however, is its relationship with new technologies! Committed to the diffusion of open source for years, this year the festival hosts a Media Center area, open to the public and to insiders. Within the Media Center, some of the most important innovations of the digital world and of new technologies will be featured, from web 2.0 to free software, from bloggers to social networks. As an event within the event, Italia Wave will host the first WaveCamp on Friday, saturday and sunday. Some of the most important names of the online world will be present, such as Leonardo Chiariglione, inventor of the mpeg and mp3 formats, Stefano Quintarelli, pioneer of the commercial introduction of internet in Italy and founder of the first Italian civical networks, Luca Conti, whose blog, "Pandemia", is the second most read blog after the one of Beppe Grillo. Fully embracing the open source philosophy, the WaveCamp's organization can be reached at the following address: www.barcamp.org/WaveCamp Of course the festival is also present on Second Life: the 4DAngels island is the virtual site that will host rock concerts, Elettrowave deejays and the virtual broadcasts of Radio Wave. The first musical contest for Virtual Bands and Artists is already open, all info is available on the 4DAngels island.

The Italia Wave Love Festival also renews its commitment with social efforts: a series of events dedicated to important aspects of our society and realized in cooperation with influential partners like Azienda notte (progetto Equal), Action Aid which will be present at the festival at the Psycho Stage, Medici senza Frontiere and CGIL will run a space called SocialWave. Also, on Sunday the 22nd, a round table will be held presenting the Axé Project from Brasil, with the presence of Dori Ghezzi for the De André Foundation.

May 29, 2007   Posted in: Italy