Chapter 8 Romaeuropa Festival, A Case Study

Abstract

Different combinations of conditions, circumstances and historical moments trigger festivals. One of the common denominators that characterises their origins and success over the course of time is the role of their founders. The birth of Romaeuropa Festival, provides us with a significant case study of visionary leadership. The story of this festival began in 1986, just ten years after the creation of the Estate Romana (Roman summer), a programme of cultural events invented by architect Renato Nicolini, the Rome City Council politician in charge of cultural affairs from 1976-1985, which brought life to the city’s streets and squares each summer with music, dance, theatre and film. During that period Rome, for the first time since the end of World War Two, was governed by a leftwing administration, led by mayors belonging to the Italian Communist Party (PCI). These were also the dark years of the Red Brigades and Fascist terrorism that bloodied Italy. The Estate Romana was conceived as an umbrella event, which was to bring together many independent initiatives from theatre, music, cinema, art and literature and smaller individual festivals, and which soon became a symbol of the rebirth of Rome and of the revitalisation of the deeply scarred city. Nicolini’s idea was to enable people to regain possession of public spaces, especially in the historic city centre, by encouraging them to engage with the highly ghettoised suburbs, by fostering democratic access and participation in cultural activities. The initiative also sought to integrate different cultural forms and languages into its programme and to appeal to a variety of audiences.