Tag: summer festival Italy

Soundlabs Festival in Abruzzo: indie and beautiful beaches

Talking about a very beautiful Italian region, Abruzzo, we want to tell about a nice summer festival on the coast: Soundlabs Festival. The evnt comes back to its traditional summer dates in Roseto degli Abruzzi this year, after a September slot of events taken place last year. Our beginnings lie in the distant past.
Born in 1997, this indie, “little festival” with free entry for emerging bands  developed into the Soundlabs Festival in 2003. 100 international “big” names have taken part in this fab festival , over the past 13 years, such as: Patti Smith, Mogwai, Blonde Redhead, Calexico, José Gonzalez, Glasvegas, Wire, Liars, Micah P. Hinson, Art Brut, Girls in Hawaii, Enon, Afterhours, Verdena, Baustelle, Zu, Linea 77, Marlene Kuntz, Giardini di Miro’, Offlaga Disco Pax.

The 2011 Soundlabs Festival—the 15th edition— will take place on August 4th till 8th at a different venue respect on the other years! The usual one, the Stadio Fonte dell’Olmo in Roseto degli Abruzzi, is changed and now the events will be displayed between Piazza Dante and the Villa Comunale.
The stars on stage this year will be: John Grant, James Yorkston, Dirty Beaches, Handsome Furs, Le Luci Della Centrale Elettrica, Amour Fou, Bob Corn, Giorgio Canali, Clear Clouds and many others.

Meaning this year Soundlabs will range from the pchydelic pop of the Australian Clear Clouds to the dark, deep atmosphere of postpunk and garage rock/rockabilly to the indie folk.

In particular, John Grant with his debut album “Queen of Denmark”, (Bella Union) is a very exciting event to be in! “Mojo” put Grant’s songs within the 5 top album of 2010!

A word on the location: Roseto degli Abruzzi’s set near the gorgeous Adriatic coast. So you can enjoy both the seaside, the beaches and the sun in the morning,  the region’s great foods and wines offer in the evening, together with the music of this funny and interesting summer festival!!

So put together great sounds, great food and great seaside with Soundlabs Festival!

Umbria Jazz: discovering new music and ancient landscapes

Born in 1973, Umbria Jazz was clearly different from the other Italian jazz festivals. Umbria Jazz took this music into the historic town squares of Umbria to audiences of up to twenty thousand young people, and every concert was free.
The festival had attracted many great musicians, including Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Weather Report, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus and Keith Jarrett.
In 1982, the Festival took place  in the town of Perugia, exactly the town’s medieval centre. Ten days of music: from traditional jazz to the most recent avantguarde and many of these concerts are free. Every year in mid-July, though since 1992 a Winter Festival sprung up from the main festival (between Christmas and New Year in the Etruscan town of Orvieto).
A true paradise for the tourist: Perugia is twenty kilometres from Assisi and half-way between Florence and Rome!
Merge yourself with the flow of  the dancing crowd following a marching band from New Orleans past the historic palaces and churches of the centre!!!

You can see the performances and the highlight of the day at comfortable new Arena, which sits against a background dominated by the Convento di Santa Giuliana.  You will also find some events and concert in the eighteenth-century Morlacchi Theatre, and of course in the small clubs set in the cellars of medieval palaces!!!

The concerts and the jam sessions go on until dawn. While are you swinging to and forth, take your time to go and visit the National Gallery of Umbria, containing one of Italy’s most important collections of Medieval and Renaissance Art.
Look for the gospel choirs arriving from Chicago and New Orleans performing in the Cathedral or in the square in front of it, next to Perugia’s famous thirteenth-century fountain! You can find this deeply moving music also in other sites, including The Basilica of San Francesco at Assisi and Orvieto Cathedral.

Are you interested in studying jazz? Enroll yourself in the Clinics which are held at Umbria Jazz each year by Boston’s Berklee College of Music. And not to mention the wine, the oil, the food you can eat and drink here in Perugia! What are you waiting for?