Brescia. The 2022 edition of the De André Festivalfrom 21 September to 2 October, will be dedicated to the album “The Good News”released in 1970. A radically innovative concept album that reinterprets the life of Jesus starting from the apocryphal Gospels, bringing out his revolutionary attitude in an underground parallel with the social struggles that began in 1968.
Born in Brescia in 2019, on the occasion of the celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of the death of the Genoese singer-songwriterthe De André Festival, promoted by Vibrant Skies with the artistic direction of Alessandro Adami, with the support of the Municipality of Brescia and in collaboration with numerous institutions and cultural realities of the territory, it is a widespread cultural review that intends to enhance the musical and poetic legacy of Fabrizio De André not only with concerts but also through meetings, conferences, exhibitions and original shows that capture the multifaceted personality of an artist.
After the success of the first edition which saw a wide participation of the public and a significant involvement of students from Brescia schools, the Festival, suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic emergency, returned for the second edition in 2021, once again registering a wide participation of the public.
In 2022 the Festival intends to resume the original project, involving the city with an innovative format, capable of activating synergies with institutions and cultural realities active in the area. Each edition will henceforth be dedicated to one of Fabrizio De André’s albums, highlighting the main themes and re-reading them in a creative way, also in the sign of the encounter and dialogue between the arts, involving the social fabric of the territory in an articulated way. Brescia.
The exhibition aims to become, also in view of the decisive appointment with “Bergamo and Brescia Capital of Culture 2023 “more and more a national point of reference for all fans, promoting the creation of original artistic projects, as an absolute premiere, to creatively re-read the work of Fabrizio De André.
As imagined from the outset, the festival planned to dedicate each edition to a specific one album by Fabrizio De André. The third edition is entirely dedicated to the 1970 masterpiece “The Good News”, considered among the highest achievements of De André’s poetics, even by the author himself. Rethinking this masterpiece, through exhibitions, concerts, theatrical performances, book presentations, original productions, is not only a tribute to the singer-songwriter, but it is also an opportunity to reflect on universal and ever-current themes such as the relationship between man and spirituality, the redemption of the last, the condition of women and much more.
The organizers are convinced that De André’s songs represent antibodies against abuse and inequalities: proposing them from different points of view, actively involving the territory, means offering a contribution for the growth of a common sensitivity and for the construction of a more just society. The festival tries to do it with simple instruments, the same ones that Fabrizio De André left us: words, music, ideas. With the ambition, in 2023, on the occasion of Bergamo Brescia Capital of Culture, to build a festival that is ever more inclusive and rich in proposals, capable of helping us to “know how to read the book of the world”.