What’s On in Lecce
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American/British Pop & Rock ┃ Folk ┃ Lecce (city only)┃ Free Entry Events
Staseera App
For daily events, you can also download the Staseera app (in Italian) (staseera means ‘tonight’ in Salento dialect)
Outdoor Sports
See the AICS site here for a list of sports events in the Lecce city marine area
Lecce in Scena
You can also find more events on the offical Lecce website here
La Fòcara di Novoli
Legendary local bonfire & firework display, with a free concert + plenty of street food & dancing.
Alba dei Popoli (Dawn of the People)
Large free outdoor concert & firework display in the small city of Otranto on the Adriatic coast.
Since its first edition in 1999, the event has hosted many famous Italian and International names including Lou Reed, Pino Daniele, Goran Bregovic, Franco Battiato, Eugenio Bennato, Edoardo Bennato, Vinicio Capossela, Nicola Piovani, Mario Biondi, Roy Paci; directors including Ferzan Ozpetek, Emir Kusturica, Manuel Pradal; as well as a long series of institutional representatives of Mediterranean countries.
Lu Paniri te e Site (Palmariggi)
Described as ‘La Festa delle Melagrane’ (The Pomergrante Festival), expect 3 days of delicous street food (much of which will involve pomegrantes), as well as live music & dancing.
Friday 6th - FREE CONCERT Consuelo Alfieri is an important folk singer from Salento and one of the voices of the world famous Notte delle Taranta.
La Notte della Taranta
Legendary local festival (of Glastonbury status in Italy), televised on Rai (Italian state broadcaster, like the BBC) held in the small town of Melpignano (about 25 mins drive south of Lecce).
Free entry, extremely busy (expect a crowd in the tens of thousands) but unmissable event for any serious muso.
Special all night train service usually runs from Lecce to Melpignano.
La Notte Bianca di Specchia
La Notte Bianca a Specchia - Classic Salento night of festivities with locally produced food, wine and lots of live music. Large programme of childrens events in the early evening, followed by local folk dancing and full concert.
One of the principle events of the summer calendar in Salento.
MAIN CONCERT
Alex Britti - Italian soft rock singer from Rome
New York Ska Jazz Ensemble
New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, originally from New York, formed in 1994. Jazz, ska and reggae, plenty of improvisation and rock'n'roll. NYSJE started as a side project of the ska group The Toasters and now includes members of The Toasters, Skatalites and Scofflaws.
Goran Bregović is a recording artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina who has performed at major international venues such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall and L'Olympia.
Shame
SEI FESTIVAL DAY 1, 2, 3
Shame are an English post-punk band originally from South London.
Calibro 35 is a cinematic funk Italian band formed in 2007 in Milan.
Cristiano Crisci, commonly known by stage name Clap! Clap!, is an Italian producer and DJ. He is a long time jazz musician and previously worked under the alias Digi G'Alessio
Thurston Moore Group
Legendary front man of 80’s/90’s NYC noise rock heros Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore (American guitarist, singer and songwriter) now tours with his own solo group.
Classiche Forme (International Chamber Music Festival)
World famous classical musicians including Stephen Waarts, Ludovica Rana, Mario Brunello, Giovanni Sollima, Marmen String Quartet, The Teyber Trio, Emmanuel Pahud, Tim Crawford, Tim Posner, Timothy Ridout, Domenico Turi, Maja Avramovič, Chiara Osella, Massimo Spada, Rosa Feola, Giuseppe Russo Rossi, Giorgio Magistroni, Francesco Muraca, I virtuosi di Sansevero, Piccotti-Ciampa duo, Tharsos trio, Sabatini-Rugani duo perform at this prestigious festival curated by Beatrice Rana. Broadcast live nationally on Italian Classical Radio.
Festa di San Pietro e Paolo (Galatina)
Firework display, fairground rides, market stalls, local food, folk dancing (pizzica). Throughout the town expect hundreds of festival lights and local artists to open their doors and display various paintings and sculptures.
Musical bands of Sogliano and Zollino will alternate, Squinzano directed by maestro Giuseppe Gregucci and Manduria directed by maestro Paola Vizzi. (Piazza San Pietro)
Monday 28th: Pizzica groups will perform including Manekà, Nui nisciunu, Vento del Sud and Cardisanti (Piazza San Pietro)
Tuesday 29th: ‘Grandiose fireworks competition which lights up the sky of Galatina every year with varied shapes and colours’
Wednesday 30th: 21:30 Republika Mod, Rita Forte (Piazza Alighieri)
Festa di San Rocca
Festa di San Rocca - ‘The festival of the Patron Saint Rocca in Torrepaduli’. Tiny village festival that is very popular, mixes traditional religious/pagan music and dancing (a particular one called ‘the dance of the swords’) with rural farming culture, as well as more modern elements. Expect lots of folk music/pizzica, tambourines, traditional lights/processions and strong earthy food and wine.
La Festa di San Donato
La Festa di San Donato Classic salento patron saint festival with food, wine, music and fireworks (depending on the day). See more details on their FB page here including full programme poster
La Notte Della Taranta, Corigliano D’otranto
As far as I know, unticketed and a free entry event
EVENT 1 of 22
La Notte Della Taranta - is a household name to anyone in Puglia (and much of Italy). An unmissable celebration of classic salentini folk music and dance (the pizzica).
About
Although the old days of the big stage with massive festival lights and classic pizzica (youtube La Notte Della Taranta from 2018 or before) have given way to a modern era of overproduced, TV-orientated, crass-fusion-pop mush; La Notte Della Taranta is still an absolute mainstay of the summer calendar in Salento. If you’re staying in or around Lecce in August and you like music you should definitely go to one of these dates. Don’t miss judge this as some kind of oldy woldy boring folk event…if you have a few glasses of local wine and get in the crowd you’ll have a lot of fun.
This now 25 year old festival has grown organically into the biggest event in the Salento folk calendar. Much like Glastonbury in the UK its been through never ending meddlings/reincarnations (especially to cater to the TV audience), but the core backbone of local musicians and dancers who are there every year are so talented/enthusiastic that it always delivers a memorable night of music.
The main ‘Concertone’ (Big Concert) is on the 27th August in the village of Melpigano (also televised on Rai), but the show now tours a further 21 towns/vilages across Salento in the weeks prior.
Find out more here
Birra e Sound, Sud Sound System
Birra e Sound - Massive beer festival with over 100 types of beer, mostly produced in Salento. More on their official website
FREE ENTRY / UNTICKETED
August 1st Live Music - Sud Sound System legendary local raggae act with full backing band (Bag A Riddim Band)
Videos
Birra e Soud Festival
Sud Sound System (with Bag A Riddim Band)
Adastra, Ceri, Ditonellapiaga, Lahasna, Rome in Reverse
tickets available here
SEI FESTIVAL DAY 4 (both day tickets and 4 day full festival pass ‘Abbonamenti’ available)
Adastra - there’s like 5 different singers/bands called Adastra on Spotify/youtube and atm I have no idea which one is playing. Will update when I find out more
Ceri - Italian electro producer
Ditonellapiaga - Italian singer songwriter from Rome, find out more here
Dengue Dengue Dengue, Mombao, Mundial, Nickodemus, Tropical Party
tickets available here
SEI FESTIVAL DAY 3 (both day tickets and 4 day full festival pass ‘Abbonamenti’ available)
Dengue Dengue Dengue - Peruvian electro duo who mix latino & afro grooves with cumbia (folk music from Peru) and classic electro. Link here to spotify (scoll to bottom for full bio on spotify)
Mombao - Italian electro rock duo (synths and drum led), read more on their website here
Aquarama, Black Midi, Lazzaretto, Planet Opal, 72-Hour Post Fight
tickets available here
SEI FESTIVAL DAY 2 (both day tickets and 4 day full festival pass ‘Abbonamenti’ available)
below from rockit.it
Aquarama - Born in 2016 from the meeting of the Florentine Dario Bracaloni, DJ and music promoter, and Guglielmo Torelli, designer and visual artist, Aquarama is the duo that blends grooves inspired by modern American r'n'b with surf melodies with a vintage 60s taste - '70, but also Afro-Cuban rhythms and funk sounds, combined with the elegance of the Italian pop tradition.
(After the pandemic) Aquarama are back with "Together (A Better Place To Celebrate)", a psychedelic soul-pop song, a sort of guided meditation, a mantra and a song by hope for a bright future. Together with them a great choir of musician friends from the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Italy.
below from wikipedia
Black Midi are an English rock band from London, formed in 2017 by Geordie Greep (vocals, guitar), Cameron Picton (vocals, bass guitar, synths), Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin (vocals, guitar) and Morgan Simpson (drums). The band is currently a trio consisting of Greep, Picton and Simpson, with Seth Evans (keyboards, synths) and Kaidi Akinnibi (saxophone) being frequent collaborators in both studio and live performances since 2020.
Their name is derived from the Japanese music genre black MIDI, though their own music has no relation to it. Their sound has been described as experimental rock, progressive rock, math rock, noise rock and post-punk.
Arab Strap, Funk Rimini, Giorgio Tuma, Koko, Lalalar
Funk Rimini - Italian funk band formed in Rimini in 2015 with English language songs. Typically a bunch of dudes with vintages synths and maybe guitarist rather than a full band with a drummer. Read more here (in Italian)