Turin: a City of Music Festivals
Discover the EDM side of Turin
by Virginia De Faveri
One of the new passions for young people is traveling around the world in search of festivals. New, only in a manner of speaking, because the world of festivals has existed for decades, but the innovations and growth in the field of transportation has definitely helped in a substantial increase of the phenomenon of festival fanatics searching for the next best music festival.
Traveling around the globe there are many music festivals to choose from, anytime and anywhere, starting from cities like Detroit (Detroit Electronic Music Festival) and Las Vegas (Electric Daisy Carnival) through to the sandy deserts of Monegros (Groove Parade) and the fairytale setting of Boom (Tomorrowland). A continuously changing, exciting, and seductive world: on the border with the fantastic.
Turin Music Festivals
Turin is a cty of music festivals and hosts three out of the most important European electronic music festivals. One of them, which is among the top five European summer music festivals, is an irresistible event held 100% in the daytime: the Kappa Futur Festival.
Kappa FuturFestival (KFF)
Kappa FuturFestival – Torino Summer Music was founded in 2012 as an evolution of the FuturFestival, an event created in occasion of the victory of the title Torino European Youth Capital New Year’s Eve 2010.
Kappa is happy to be called the most loved smart entertainment of Italy. Why is that?
- Mobility: The Kappa FuturFestival exploits Dora Park, a peripheral area of Turin: an industrial atmosphere between tanks, pillars and chimneys. The site, which in the nineties was the Piedmontese industrial lung of the city, was rebuilt in a modern way in order to host events and accommodate families and sports lovers. The Dora Park is well connected by public transport, but the 2016 edition’s primary purpose was to make reaching the location increasingly eco-friendly. Turin has a smart and ecologically sustainable soul that every event should consider.
- Cashless: Once you’re in the Kappa mood it will be impossible to avoid this technology. Convenient and fast, PayCard is a new system in the field of events that allows you to load money on a card and use the rechargeable card for both days for any payment within the area. This allows for less waiting, fewer worries and more time to enjoy the fun! At the end of the event you can keep the card as a souvenir and within the first week you can get the left over money refunded.
- Trashed: During KFF, what will you be able to buy at no cost? Recycling!
Within the event the American Association Global Inheritance brings forward the interactive recycling program Trashed Recycling Store. For the past 10 years, Trashed encourages people to collect recyclable materials during major events around the world. As much as 85% of the material used at the Kappa FuturFestival is recycled. The more recycling, the more things you can buy: every recycled product has a score that can be converted into purchase, from backstage access and VIP tickets for concerts, to autographed merchandise and much more!
Maurizio Vitale, one of the organizers, has confessed to “La Stampa” a foreseeable use of wearable devices: bracelets and clothing equipped with technology capable of managing the flow of the crowd and the perceived sound intensity to advise the wearer for the appropriate time to move away from the speakers.
Movement Torino Music Festival
The organizers of the KFF, Maurizio Vitale and Gigi Mazzoleni, are not dealing with a major event for the first time. Kappa is, in fact, the summer version of another one of their creations: the Movement Torino Music Festival.
The name does not sound new to the more experienced festival-goer: Movement was founded in Detroit from the passion of one of the fathers of the Techno genre, Derrick May. Maurizio and Gigi chose to bring the spirit of the event to Turin after meeting him. The occasion was the end of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics with a dance evening dedicated to the young, in the Isozaki Palace (current Pala Alpitour).
The choice for the name Movement is spontaneous: “What better, sexier and more clever name than Movement? Today it is a word that is used in all fields. Our whole life is Movement” – Maurizio Vitale.
In 2007 Movement repeats itself, officially becoming linked with Halloween, on October 31, with three times as many participants. Today, Casa Movement is in Lingotto Fiere in Turin but the 10-day festival is so spread out that it involves all of Turin! In fact, several prestigious locations have hosted performances of the participating artists, such as:
The Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, the Politecnico di Torino, the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences, the Museum of Turin, Lumiq Studios, The Circle of Readers, the Royal Riding School, the Scuola Holden and the Temporary Museum of BasicVillage.
This is the Movement culture, a cultural movement with the ambition to contribute to the revaluation of public spaces for culture, through musical events funded entirely with private resources. The peculiarity of Movement Torino from an artistic point of view is that the line up changes every year: the artists are never the same the following year, all except Derrick who is now a constant. So, don’t forget to check out this year’s line up.
Maurizio and Gigi finance the music festivals themselves and try not to depend on the city of Turin, in both an economic and social manner. The public is involved from the beginning of the event to the end. As lovers of the city, the two partners are always trying to find a compromise with local protesters, despite the fact that they have never broken the limits stated by the law.
To those that ask why they remain in Turin, the two simply answer: “We were born here…we have not received large financial contributions from the city and perhaps abroad the situation would be different, but the location and the public that we have in Turin could never be found elsewhere.. ”
Recently KFF and Movement have received sponsorship by the European Commission, becoming the first Italian music festival to get this important award as well as being recommended by the New York Times in events not to missed while visiting Turin.
Kappa FuturFestival in July
MOVEMENT in October
Club2Club – Teatro Carignano foto by Andrea Macchia
Club To Club Festival (C2C)
Turin has a strong electronic music soul, in such a way that there are plenty of music festivals and other events of this nature rooted in Turin for the past 16 years. The well-known Club To Club Festival (C2C) is one of the largest music, art and electronic culture festivals in Europe. Every year, in the Fall, during the Turin Contemporary Art Week, #C2C chooses the most beautiful places in Turin to be experienced in electronic light.
In the last year we have also seen the third celebration of an innovative English Project, A Great Symphony for Turin. In the original format the protagonists are 15 compositions by young and talented Italian and international musicians. Each one of the compositions is dedicated to a place of interest in the city and becomes the soundtrack. British artist Steve Goodman, Kode9 in art, directed the 2015 edition by creating a manifesto for the participants, inviting them to realize their tracks starting out from sounds and environmental effects recorded in the same location. A Great Symphony is a contemporary electronic work, able to narrate the rhythm and catch the mood of the city, by giving life through music and technology to an original experiment in “augmented reality”.
Tourists and visitors, art and music lovers as well as the inhabitants of the city of Turin will be able to hear the symphony in the days of the Club To Club and Luci d’Artista through the QR Code placed in their respective areas, or by visiting the official web site agreatsymphony.net – now updated with the inclusion of 360 degree photos of the places set to music. Sound areas will be reported in the Great Symphony City Map, distributed at the locations that host the Club To Club Festival and at the strategic points of the Contemporary Week.
Here’s what people say about C2C…
“A superb line-up of electronic and pop act that push to the limit both genders”- THE INDEPENDENT (UK)
“A theater of the extremities. The contrast is a joy “- THE QUIETUS (UK)
“With 40,000 participants in 5 days of the festival, # C2C14 is still one of the best European festivals “ – TRAX (FR)
“Club To Club was one of the musical events of the year, has filled Torino fans, musicians and journalists from around the world, he has made dance and sing for five days” – OFFICE
Club To Club Festival, in November – Check out the Club2Club website for up to date info and listings
Other Turin Music Festivals & Events to check out:
- Gigi D’Agostino, Loud Club June
- Holi Fusion Festival June
- MODERAT June www.mailticket.it/evento/7821
- TODAYS August www.todaysfestival.com
- RMF-Reload Music Festival in February www.reloadmusicfestival.com
- Shout!
- Savana Potente
- Torino Winter Season EDM nights
More useful links for Turin Music Festivals:
Electronic Dance Music Festival
Shout!
Savana Potente
Todays Festival
About the Writer: 
Virginia is a young University student in Turin and curiosity lover. She lives to write with wonder about the marvelous little things that she sees in this world.
