The 21st edition of 'La Notte della
Taranta', a festival dedicated to folk-music traditions of the
Salento area in southern Puglia, will open this year on August
2.
The event will include over 100 hours of live concerts with
360 artists and 40 concerts of local 'pizzica' music to be held
across Salento.
The festival's traditional closing concert in Melpignano is
scheduled on August 25.
Three exhibits will be inaugurated during the festival.
A show will be dedicated to late singer and song-writer
Domenico Modugno.
Another exhibit will pay homage to Renata Fonte, a councilor
in Nardò who was killed by the mafia in 1984 over her fight
against excessive cementification as this edition of the
festival is dedicated to the landscapes and countryside that
inspired local folk music and dance traditions.
Massimo Manera, the president of the foundation that
organizes the event, said at the presentation of the Notte della
Taranta at the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan that this edition of
the event will "embrace theater, the area's historic and
monumental heritage and folklore as well as music and dance".
Artists who will perform include singer and song-writer
Carmen Consoli, Elio from band 'Elio e le storie tese', musician
Ambrogino Sparagna, the group 'Le Menadi Danzanti' and puppet
theater 'Teatro dei Pupi' with Mimmo Cuticchio and Philippe
Daverio.
Michele Coppola, who is the director of the art, culture and
historic heritage department of bank Intesa San Paolo, which
sponsors the event, said that the lender's museum Gallerie
d'Italia (Italy's galleries) in Milan, "are called in this way
because they aim to display all of the country's identities, not
just art, painting and sculpture but also the traditions of our
being Italian".
"This is why we work for this event", he concluded.
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