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It’s the most singular of festivals, because in fact… the guests do it. And the increasingly lively curiosity of the public. Because you never know what you might find there, given that the guests, all leading figures from the world of entertainment, culture and journalism, are asked to talk… about their “Topic of your choice”. From Friday to Sunday on the seafront of Roccella Jonica the second edition of the event conceived and directed by the journalist Tommaso Labate, who loves to weave this thread every year between his Calabria (he is from Marina di Gioiosa) and the world of the media in which he lives as a protagonist. Three days dedicated to sparkling chats in Largo Colonne Rita Levi Montalcini. Indeed, afternoons dedicated to books, and then the evening stage to discover the topics at will. The event is promoted by the Municipality of Roccella Jonica, with the mayor Vittorio Zito, and produced by Elastica. But above all supported by the enthusiasm of visitors and citizens. We talked about it with Tommaso Labate.
So, do you persist with the topic at will? How much do you like the topic you like?
«The topic is becoming more and more popular, so much so that after the surprising success with the public last year we obviously decided not only to replicate, but to strengthen the events. The surprising thing is that all those who experienced the first edition take time off to return if they stay away, and those who hadn’t heard of it are stunned by the idea.”
And they become new spectators and tasters of topics of their choice… What will you surprise us with this year, conversing with the legendary Enrico Mentana, the explosive Sabina Guzzanti, the inexhaustible Nicola Savino? Is there a common thread?
«The common thread this year is the invisible one between the remote past and the future. We will go to the hidden origins of Enrico Mentana, protagonist of the first evening appointment, at 9pm on Friday, who will tell us about something he perhaps has never talked about: his relationship with Calabria, the land of his father Francesco, a great sports journalist originally from Bova. A Calabria where the boy Enrico spent his summers. And in my opinion, a dive into the origins of a character about whom we know practically everything could be a great surprise, a “sentimental investigation”: what is it about him, about those summers? And the future instead is the reversal of the paradigm of Artificial Intelligence which with Sabina Guzzanti we will talk about as… Intelligent Artificiality, in an evening which, as per Guzzanti’s well-known stylistic signature, promises to be dizzying. And then there is Nicola Savino, his very special class struggle within radio and television: one of the very rare radio and TV stories in which he tells of an internal apprenticeship at the studio, because Savino was a technician on a radio program before hosting it and his was a true rise from the bottom. The originality of the Festival is that when you treat the topic as you like, not only is no year or edition similar to the previous one, but all the evenings are different, because you come for the atmosphere, for the curiosity. It is a festival that does not have a specific target because it is for everyone.”
No more hectic times and no more targets: a festival of disruption.
«When I hear the word target I always think of one of my grandmothers who was excluded, and instead you have to be “broad”: like those old board games that told you they were good for ages 4 to 99, for all social categories, all levels of education. For everyone.”
And, in the slow and non-frantic times of a festival “on a human scale… on holiday”, there are also afternoon appointments with books.
«The program of afternoon appointments regarding books is also very rich. I quote Concita De Gregorio with a widely read book, “The cure”, her personal story of her relationship with the disease. There will be Serena Bortone with her first novel, “Le dirimpettaie”, there will be Nuccio Caffo, who in “Semper ad Maiora” tells a story of great Calabrian entrepreneurship: how one manages, starting from Calabria, to move to the top, if not the top, of a specific sector, here that of liqueurs. Also very important will be the book by Danilo Chirico, the journalist from Reggio: “The daughter of the clan”.
So this time too will you tell us that your topic of choice is Calabria, or shall we add another?
«I’ll repeat myself, but this year too my topic of choice is Calabria. Every time they ask you, on the other hand, it’s usually always the same, but you decline it in a different way. Last year I spoke about restitution: giving back to a region that gave me birth, that formed me, some of the baggage that I have built over the years of working outside, in Rome. This year I’m talking about the pleasure of showing Calabria, in some cases of re-showing it to all the people who come here. It already happened with last year’s guests, Veltroni, Buffa, Zoro, Marcorè: some have returned or are thinking of returning, precisely for this reason.”
There’s no denying it: this festival has everything to please.