The Bologna Summer 2021 bill kicks off, which from May to October will return to connect the city with live culture through a calendar more than ever rich and widespread of music, shows, cinema, sports, meetings, itineraries and socializing for an audience of all ages.
Safety and proximity are the basis of the programming, with initiatives that reach citizens in the open spaces close to their daily lives, from the squares of the center to the urban parks to the hilly areas, from the neighborhood courtyards to the suburbs of the metropolitan area, in full respect security protocols.
The summer program will be vast and inclusive, considering that the 200 projects selected at the first deadline of the Bologna Summer 2021 call, of which 82 in the metropolitan area, will be joined by the proposals concerning the second part of the summer, which will be selected among the 187 received and now being evaluated.
All information on Bologna summer events is available on bolognaestate.it
Some events not to be missed
Among the first to raise the curtain in the city, Fraternal Compagnia which inaugurates the long review of the courtyard of the Cava delle Arti with the performances of some young companies; Teatro degli Angeli with a show on the history of Bologna that opens the rEstate agli Angeli review; ABC Theater that opens with the Guglielmo Pagnozzi Quartet.
The main theaters of the city also reopen such as the Municipal Theater , the Arena del Sole , the Testoni Ragazzi Theater , Teatri di Vita , the Duse , the Dehon , Teatro Ridotto and also the 20 30 and AngelicA festivals . For lovers of greenery hidden in the private courtyards and gardens of the historic center, the unmissable appointment with Di verde in verde returns on the weekend of 21-23 May, while for children and families from mid-May the over 40 events of the Fantateatro start. around the city and the Guasto garden reopens with workshops and activities.
Also starting the first of the urban trekking I give you the music to discover the glorious musical history of Bologna, with two events a month until September, and the summer festival Magic Nights at the villas and castles of the Conoscere la Musica Association, which brings music to refined and evocative places in the city and the metropolitan area.
Salaborsa is out! opens the outdoor program of the city libraries with reading groups, language workshops, book markets and animated readings in the Guido Fanti courtyard of Palazzo d’Accursio.
The main news of June
San Francesco in the evening. This square is a sight! is the absolute novelty of the summer which, from 4 June to 15 August, in the fascinating setting of Piazza San Francesco , will offer an open-air theater review for three evenings a week from Friday to Sunday, in a schedule of appointments by of Emilia Romagna Teatro Foundation in collaboration with the Network for Piazza San Francesco.
The other two main cultural foundations of the city will manage important squares in the historic center: Piazza Verdi will be the protagonist of the summer season of the Municipal Theater , which from mid-June onwards will alternate performances in the theater with programming outside on the square.
Piazza Maggiore is as usual in the sign of the Cineteca di Bologna , but will also host the key initiatives of the fiftieth anniversary of the DAMS at the opening in summer. The big screen in Piazza Maggiore will light up with the traditional event Sotto le stelle del cinema on 23 June, and will be joined by the new ‘ twin screen ‘ of the Lunetta Gamberini to bring the cinema out of the historic center, in a green area of the neighborhood Santo Stefano, to give the possibility to an ever wider audience to participate. The 35th edition of the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival will take place from 20 to 27 July.
The Arena Puccini also reopens its doors with the Cineteca , with the best of a season that has sacrificed the theaters and which is now rediscovering the collective vision in front of the big screen.
NOVA Bologna is the new joint proposal of five of the main players in the Bolognese music scene (Estragon Club, Covo Club, Dumbo, roBOt Festival and TPO), gathered to mark a step with respect to the restart of live music in the city in the new arena that will be set up in Dumbo, with a concert area with a thousand seats, in compliance with the distancing and health protocols dictated by Covid, hosting a program of concerts by national and international artists that will open on June 22 with the Bolognese band Lo Stato Sociale.
After the success of 2020, the theatrical company Archivio Zeta will be at home again in a secured Villa Aldini , with an unpublished project on the bill, the LIBeRI review that gives an appointment at Villa Pallavicini for an interesting calendar of book presentations and meetings with great protagonists of city life and beyond.
The confirmations
Music is the great protagonist of the summer; in June, after the success of the first 2020 edition, Sunshine superheroes curated by Locomotiv Club at the Puccini Arena and at the Oltre Festival red barracks park .
The large space of urban regeneration in via Casarini will also welcome the resumption of the activities of various leading players in the city’s cultural system, including the twelfth edition of Robot Festival , a summer edition of the Bologna Jazz Festival which sees Fabrizio Bosso among the guests. and Enrico Rava and some of the performances of DanzaUrbana which in September will touch various places in the city for its 25th edition.
The Biografilm Festival is also back in attendance, from June 4 to 14, which in addition to welcoming the public in the hall provides a new outdoor cinema space in the Cloister of Santa Cristina della Fondazza . The tenth edition of Live Arts Week curated by Xing is relocated in an unprecedented dimension along the Rhine . The nineteenth edition of the international festival Gender bender returns to Cavaticcio from 2 to 19 September .
Other classic summer events in the courtyard of the Archiginnasio with Pianofortissimo concerts and the courtyard of the Baraccano Theater reopens with three major projects: Respighi project, Kafka, Lettere a Milena and Il Barbiere a Fumetti, between music and Manga drawings.
A Summer Musical Festival , now in its ninth edition, will take place from 10 June in the new BOAT open air theater (Bologna Open Air Theater), in the redeveloped spaces in front of the BSMT headquarters. InChiostro , the summer season of ERT Foundation will live in the Cloister of the Arena del Sole and Teatri di vita proposes the summer festival Heart of air. The Teatro del Pratello company proposes its new show Memories of hands at the Penal Institute for Minors while Cantieri Meticci will offer workshops, shows and participatory interventions in various places in the city.
Around the Museum , from 25 June to 10 August, on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the Ustica massacre, there will be among other appointments the performative installation “Aerial Battle” created by the artistic duo Petri- Paselli .
Cortile in Comune , the choral and multidisciplinary cultural review curated by the Foundation for Urban Innovation will animate the Cortile Guido Fanti of Palazzo d’Accursio, between June 15 and September 22.
And the Montagnola Republic review organized by Arci Bologna returns in June , with ample space for experimentation in the musical and artistic field and particular attention to local productions as well as workshop activities for children and families in collaboration with local associations.
In urban greenery, in the hills and in the countryside
More than ever, there are numerous initiatives in the city parks and in the green areas of the first hill, to return to living outdoors after the difficult year we have gone through: to get back to moving, the Parks in movement project is expanded and consolidated , which offers a rich program of free activities for citizens of all ages in six parks spread over six districts, while the Margherita Gardens will see a new summer festival formula at the playground and the return of Kilowatt Summer to the Serre dei Giardini Margherita.
Among the other continuing exhibitions in the green, also the Summer at 300 steps at the Parco del Pellegrino above Villa Spada, with the confirmations of the InsOrti Festival and the third edition of Orgatronica , and some unpublished proposals such as the Sunday Morning; the Echo of the first hill in the park of Villa Ghigi; Fienile Fluò on the Paderno badlands; the Collina della Meraviglie in Sabbiuno, and the novelty of Collywood overlooks in Via dei Colli near the Cavaioni Park and the aforementioned L’estate a Paleotto11 at the Parco del Paleotto .
Gardens and open spaces host other cultural and aggregation initiatives such as Millenium Estate at Villa Spada, Cineporto BOff at Parco XI Settembre, Giardini Baraccano Festival and many others.
The summer of libraries and museums
Among the many proposals dedicated to books and reading, also promoted as part of the Pact for Reading, Le vie della Parola stand out , in collaboration with Cubo Unipol and Amor gentile. Dante, Bologna and the talk of love , a series of meetings, concerts, readings and themed walks promoted by the Libraries Sector together with Unibo and the Center for Contemporary Poetry, which will inaugurate on 9 June with the Nobel Prize Olga Tokarczuk , also hosting Francesco Guccini on the evening of 18 June.
And back in attendance BOOM! Crescere nel libri , the festival dedicated to girls and boys as part of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. In the courtyard of the Archiginnasio , there will be no shortage of book presentations for Tonight I speak organized by Librerie Coop, three evenings of readings of Dante’s Comedy interpreted by Franco Ricordi, two dedicated exhibitions and many other events.
The Bologna Museums Institution offers a rich program of traditional exhibitions such as “(s) Nodi” at the Music Museum and “Certosa di Bologna. Summer Calendar “interesting additions such as” Agora Archeology “, a multifunctional space at the Museo Archeologico where visitors are the protagonists of the dialogue with the ancient world, and cycling excursions guided themes to discover the Navile canal from the two museums that the channel colleague (Museum of Industrial Heritage and Museum of rural civilization in Bentivoglio). Several exhibitions can be visited during the summer.
These are just some of the scheduled appointments. All updates on bolognaestate.it
