Modena greeted the arrival of 2026 with a Piazza Roma full of life, lights and amazement. Thousands of people took turns during the evening to watch “Galileo”, the aerial show of the French company Deus ex Machina which opened the Olympic year in Paris and which in Modena transformed New Year’s Eve into a collective experience of great visual and emotional impact.
With their gaze turned to the sky, the audience followed the acrobatics suspended fifty meters in the air around the large steel sphere, which became the fulcrum of a poetic and spectacular narrative. Between trapezes, fabrics, vertical dance and monumental projections of nebulae and constellations, the seventeenth-century profiles of Piazza Roma have been transformed into an open-air urban theatre. A vision capable of fascinating all generations, from children to adults, in an atmosphere of shared celebration amplified by Radio Bruno’s DJ sets who accompanied the audience before and after the show, promoted by the Municipality of Modena with the support of the Modena Foundation and organized by the Entroterre Foundation.
At the stroke of midnight, the countdown was marked together with the artists of Deus ex Machina and ended with a toast in the square together with the mayor Massimo Mezzetti, who greeted those present and thanked citizens, artists, organizers and all the people at work even on New Year’s Eve.
The evening continued until just after one o’clock and no incidents or significant episodes were recorded, especially considering the high number of attendees, with Piazza Roma which, for the entire duration of the event, was always full to almost its maximum capacity and with an interminable queue outside the square. An intense activity of exploding fireworks then began around the square – although prohibited by municipal regulations – with some episodes of tension due to the throwing of firecrackers by groups of very young people. However, no injuries were reported.
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The mayor’s thanks
“I thank all the citizens who came to the square to take part in the Galileo show. Not a title chosen by chance: Galileo was a champion in the fight against obscurantism, ignorance and superstition – comments the mayor Massimo Mezzetti – A different proposal, to be together in welcoming 2026, with extraordinary artists who hovered at altitude in a Rome square more evocative than ever. And it was precisely the beauty of Modena that accompanied the skill of the company Deus ex Machina which performed for the first time in Italy right in our city. It is therefore an invitation to raise our gaze and to accompany our personal commitment with hope, in whatever field we operate”.
“I obviously thank the artists and all those who made the show possible – adds Mezzetti – And above all I thank all those who worked tonight for our safety, for the cleanliness of the city, in hospitals and transport”.
