In Pergine, the world of fiction and imagination opens to you the moment you set foot out of the train. Indeed, the medieval castle of Pergine overlooks the town and transports you into a Grimm’s fairy tale. Like the basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde (also named the “Good mother”) looks on the town of Marseille and watches after it, you might wonder what or who wanders in Pergine’s castle, what power gives it its fantastic energy. Legend says that a lady is living between its walls and, still today, on full moon nights, you can see the shadow of a woman, dressed in white, who sings a song, praising freedom with melancholy. This is under the White Lady’s eyes that the Pergine Festival had happened, from the 29th of June to the 13th of July. The title of this year’s edition “Senti come suona” (Hear how it sounds) resonates with the reverie of the chateau, the imagination of a world of possibilities and fictions in the mountains of Valsugana. What echo can be heard there?

This year of 2024 is the 49th edition of the festival. Pergine Festival was created in 1976, with the aim to promote the cultural and social growth of the town. Since its creation, the programme has not ceased to become more multidisciplinary, presenting music, dance, theatre for adults and children. Since the end of the 90’s, the festival is also thought as a laboratory, offering workshops, encounters and spaces of research with directors, musicians or choreographers. For example, this year you could participate to a laboratory of dramaturgy with Gabriele Di Luca or follow a free dance workshop with Gianmara Borzillo and Giovanfrancesco Giannini, in which you would learn to dance the polka chinata, a Bolognese dance of the early twentieth century.
More than being a multidisciplinary festival, Pergine has multiple locations to host the shows. That way, the audience can discover a variety of places within the town, such as the Communal Theatre of Pergine, or a former coach house, but also some private homes, when the residents of the town welcome events at their house. When I was there, a very special gathering was organised in the atelier of a beautiful ancient house: a disc listening. This event was intimate, the owners of the house had prepared chairs and pillows in a circle for the participants to sit and listen to Madres, an album of electronic music by Sofia Kourtesis, a Peruvian DJ and producer based in Berlin. Madres is her first full-length album, telling the story of her mother’s recovery. The event was hosted by five students from the Poplar team. Poplar is a music festival happening in mid-September in Trento. The team presented the songs from the album and initiated a dialogue upon them, while the participants were drinking a glass of white wine and eating grissini.
During Pergine Festival, the audience can experience many different ways of watching a show. They can be seated on the chairs of a theatre, on pillows on wood stands in an old coach house or on the grass on the top of a mountain.

Indeed, after the intimate atmosphere of the disc listening at the house, it was time to climb up the mountain of the Castle, to view the next performance, Parole Politiche d’amore e disamore by La Rappresentante di Lista, a mix of reading and singing. From here there’s been the opportunity to admire the sun setting on fairy-tale-like surroundings. The audience could feel the magical aura of the castle in our backs.
The voices of Veronica Lucchesi and Dario Mangiaracina inhabited the silent mountains and captivated everyone: even the trees became yellow, red, or blue under the spotlights.

After the show and after having climbed the mountain (some shuttles are available for those who can’t or do not want to walk to the top), thirst started to come. The festival thought about it since free water was available through a water fountain situated on the location of the concert, on top of the mountain. It was also possible to eat something (and to sort your waste afterwards in the four dedicated bins!).
Every night, after having watched two or three shows, it is possible to finish the evening in the centre of Pergine, just behind the town hall – a Baroque late 17th century building with a double staircase accessing the first floor. Even if the audience doesn’t know where to go, the sound of the music will guide one to the stage, voices and instruments resonating in the valley of Valsugana.

While listening to different artists every night, you can eat something from the delicious kitchen of the festival. Everything is served in washable dishes, therefore there is no waste! Environmental sustainability is a dear cause to the festival. Indeed, next to the food truck is displayed a poster advising the audience what to do to reduce their impact on the environment: fill your bottle with water from the tap, sort your waste, limit the purchase of single-use products, try local products, prefer vegetarians or vegan options, move by bicycle or on foot, respect all, welcome diversity. Not just environmental diversity but also social diversity. Indeed, the festival aims to be accessible to all. Since 2012, with the creation of the No Limits project, the festival works on making its venues accessible. On the program symbols such as a crossed-out eye or a crossed-out ear signify the presence of LIS interpreting service, audio description, subtitling help the audience to find out more information about accessibility.

Waiting for the next evening and the next show, you can visit the region of Valsugana. On your arrival, the festival gives you a booklet on the area, with things to see around. Therefore, the morning after an evening of dancing, you can go have a swim in the Caldonazzo lake.
Between the metaphorical identity of the lake and the fantastic world of the mountains, Pergine Festival evolves in a physical and mental space of myths, hopes and inventions of new ways of acting on contemporary matters.

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Tag: Ateatro in English (8), Pergine Festival (5)