Gardone Riviera Unveils Summer Events with Music, Culture, and Tourism
In Gardone Riviera, summer will begin on… Easter Monday. The other evening, during the council meeting, Mayor Alessandro Bazzani presented the event calendar. On Monday, April 16th (at 11 am, in Piazza Marconi), the young British band “Wythenshave Wind Band” will open the season. On May 12th, at the Vittoriale auditorium, a conference titled “A man, a culture, a territory” dedicated to Gabriele D’Annunzio will be held; in the evening, there will be a concert by the Scaligero Instrumental Ensemble, featuring soloists from La Scala. On June 3rd, the new urban decor of Morgnaga will be inaugurated with a performance by Marco De Santi (guitar) and Davide Formisano (flute).
Cultural Events and Music
On the 10th, at Villa Alba, there will be the presentation of the CD “Nuevo Tango“, and a concert by Gianni Alberti (clarinet and saxophone), Fausto Beccalossi (accordion), Oscar Del Barba (piano), and Carlos Bruschini (bass and double bass). For the “Cultural Aperitifs” series on Fridays, May 18th, Rai TV journalist Riccardo Venchiarutti, former Bresciaoggi contributor, will speak on “Information for travelers“. On May 25th, Luisa Fiaccavento Quatermaine, a Salodiana who emigrated to England and teaches Italian Literature at the University of Exeter, will discuss her book “The Last Mussolini, fears and propaganda of the RSI“.
On June 1st, Herfried Schlude, an expert in European law, will focus on “A king in Gardone during the Belle Epoque“. On June 8th, Marco Ausenda, Director General of Touring, will explain “Tourism in Italy“. The following week, at the Grand Hotel Savoy, the journalism contest awards ceremony will take place.
For music, the “Cantalago” (Saturday, June 30th, at the Vittoriale) and the 40 evenings along the lakeside (jazz, flamenco, Latin American rhythms, Italian graffiti) will be held. Additionally, the organic market will take place on the first Sundays of June, July, August, and September. “The theatre performances at the Vittoriale,” announced Bazzani, “will start on July 7th with the Requiem Mass. There will be a total of 27 shows, plus seven Monday concerts.”
Initiatives and Events
From September 14th to 23rd, events dedicated to D’Annunzio will take place, including the Gardone-Vienna-Gardone raid: departure on Tuesday, the 18th, and arrival on Saturday, the 22nd. “It is organized by the Mille Miglia Club and, in the coming years, will focus on Fiume (2002), Arcachon (2003), Pescara (2004), and Florence (2005),” explained the mayor. On the sporting side, there will be the Ferrari gathering (April 29th), Kinderlandia (June 10th), the night-time boat race involving bisses (Saturday, June 23rd), the S. Michele soccer palio (from July 22nd to 29th), and the “Ten Kilometers Gardonese” (October 21st).
The various frazioni will also host fairs. The funding from the Municipal Administration increases from 143 to 233 million euros. “The innovative and distinctive point of the program is the rebranding effort, the marketing operation underway,” added Bazzani. “This includes publishing a brochure and a trilingual leaflet (you will see the first copies tonight), participating in fairs in collaboration with the Riviera dei Limoni Consortium, creating a press office and public relations, and launching a journalistic contest. But tourism also involves green space management, lakeside restyling, signage for historic buildings, urban decor of Morgnaga and Tresnico, recovering the valley of the Casinò with the marina and the new beach.”
While giving a generally positive assessment, Davide Calderan, hotel owner and minority councilor, argued that the sports calendar is the least significant (“we forgot about the lake“) and asked about relations with Vittoriale. The mayor’s response: “President Assunta Andreoli is up to the task. She understands that the poet’s figure must be promoted externally (today is the inauguration of the exhibition at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris, which is why Giovanna Ciccarelli, the Culture assessor, is absent). This also helps promote Gardone. Even the photo shoot by ‘Oggi’, featuring Vittorio Sgarbi dressed as D’Annunzio, falls into this promotional strategy.” Where image and appearances matter more than anything else.
