From 2 to 8 July 2022, the Pisa Folk Festival returns to enliven the city of Pisa for its 20th edition with three concerts in the splendid location of Giardino Scotto, two workshops, and other events at La Nunziatina, Arno Vivo, Jazz Road Lab and Mix Art.
A big party, that of 2022, to celebrate 20 years of the Pisa Folk Festival, born in the university context and now a fixed appointment for the entire city, which continues to tenaciously promote the culture of integration and the meeting of different traditions and generations.
The 2022 programme includes over 8 events including music, dance, theatre and cultural encounters on the themes of popular traditions from different Italian regions.
For more information on the events and for bookings: www.pisafolk.org/info/pisafolkfestival2022
On 3 July at 9.30 p.m., the first main event of the festival: the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, returns for the third time to the Pisa Folk Festival, after having trodden the most important stages in Europe and the world. CGS, recognised as the Best World World Music Group at the 2018 Songlines Music Awards, is the first and most important group of Salento folk music, reinterpreting in a modern key the traditions revolving around the famous ritual pizzica tarantata. Meridiana is the group's latest recording, which will be presented in Pisa, together with the great classics of the Canzoniere.
On 6 July, again at 9.30 p.m. at Giardino Scotto, the appointment is with Unavantaluna - Cumpagnia di Musica Siciliana: an ensemble of musicians with Sicilian origins in search of a possible balance between tradition and musical innovation. Unavantaluna also return to the Pisa Folk Festival after their historic 2013 concert in Piazza Garibaldi. The Sicilian group will present a preview of some songs from their new album, due out in 2023, in addition to the band's historic repertoire.
It will instead be Enzo Avitabile who will close the festival on Friday 8 July: Acoustic World arrives in Pisa thanks to the collaboration between the Pisa Folk Festival and Pisa Jazz Rebirth, another important city festival dedicated to jazz music. The special event was born out of the desire to celebrate music together, the encounter between jazz and the folk tradition, and pay homage to world music, with one of the most significant Italian performers of the genre.
On Saturday 2 July, PFF22 will be inaugurated by the intensive pizzica pizzica workshop with Franca Tarantino, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Jazz Road Lab in Via Bovio.
The second appointment with courses for amateurs, novices and experts is on Tuesday 5 July: Sardinian tenor singing, with Sebastiano Pilosu and the Tenores di Bitti, will be held at Mix-Art but from 5 to 7 pm. The homage to Sardinia continues on the evening of 5 July at La Nunziatina with a concert by the famous Tenores di Bitti Remunnu 'e Locu and the talented accordion player Pierpaolo Vacca, accompanied by talks by Prof. Marco Lutzu (University of Cagliari) and the screening of the docufilm A Bolu (distributed by the international platform Netflix) with Sebastiano Pilosu, co-author of the docufilm.
On 7 July, again at La Nunziatina, a tribute to Tuscany, with an interesting evening of theatre directed by the theatre company Gli Omini with the show Testa a festa, will see a generational clash-meeting between historic Tuscan singers and young rappers; it will be the public who will decide the winner of this intergenerational challenge.
The programme also includes a moment of in-depth analysis to retrace the most important stages of the Folk Revival movement in Italy, with a specific focus on Pisa, looking back on the 20 years of the Festival,
The meeting scheduled for Sunday 3 July at 7.00 p.m. at Arno Vivo will be attended by guests of national stature: Vincenzo Santoro (Head of Anci Department of Culture and Tourism), Domenico Ferraro (Squilibri Editore), Antonio Fanelli (University of Rome La Sapienza and IED) and the journalist and essayist Salvatore Esposito (Blog Foolk Editorial Director).
