by ALDO BELLI – “Lucca Città di Carta” is an opportunity that the mayor and the culture councilor of the Municipality of Lucca should not miss.
Courageous women, with the courage to create culture, Romina Lombardi, Daniela Tresconi, Maria Grazia Russo, Sandra Tedeschi, Nicoletta Salamone, Maria Pia Michelini, Luciana Violante, Elisa Cordovani, the concrete example that the book is alive when it is made to live among people, when it unites books for every age, the concrete example of how companies with a small contribution can contribute to a great cultural event, with free entry, in which books are not sold like boxes of peeled tomatoes. When I stopped at each stand, I was struck by the quality present in Lucca and Tuscany in a sector without public protection networks (think of the 10% VAT that is still applied to books in Italy), the so-called small publishing industry which ” in reality it only means independent, I saw publishers who behind their book stalls were selling enthusiasm, the ambition to share their work and that of their authors, I saw the enthusiasm of the chefs from Lucca in their space to remember the culture of food. When I left after three hours of walking and asking questions to satisfy my curiosities, in the splendid setting of the Royal College, I thought that the institutions of Lucca, the Municipality and the banking foundations first of all, should not be less than the private individuals who have put themselves hands in pockets and the work of the organizers without saints in heaven. Over 80 exhibitors, 10,000 visitors in two days. In Italy it is celebrated every year in Rome National Small Publishing Fair. For Lucca, “Lucca City of Paper” it could become the evolution of an annual national event projected into Europe. It is an opportunity that the mayor and the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Lucca should not miss. (AB)
The editorial team
The third edition of Lucca Città di Carta Festivalorganized by the association of the same name in collaboration with Born to Write and The Ordinarycloses the curtain, surpassing itself: 9,953 attendances were in fact recorded in the two-day event of 27 and 28 April at the Real Collegio, two thousand more than the three-day event in 2022. The appointment is now set for next year, given that the event will become annual.
“We are obviously delighted with this new result in terms of attendance – explain the director Romina Lombardi and the director of the publishing area Alessio Del Debbio on behalf of the entire staff – it means that the Festival continues to grow from all points of view and this is what we work hard on every time for almost a year, but what will make us increasingly happy even with the numbers are the enthusiasm of the public, the full rooms of children having fun, the original proposals of the editors present who contribute in an important way to the enrichment of our cultural programme, the authors and guests who lend themselves to a real dialogue with the public and to experience the festival themselves, the artists who always bring that something extra into people’s minds and hearts. In short, as we have been repeating since 2020, when we decided to bring an event that was missing to Lucca, our idea of culture is this: real participation, enthusiasm, bringing everyone closer to books, even non-readers and… kindness, that more that we ask of all those who collaborate with the Festival. Culture is something that intrinsically belongs to us as human beings, it cannot be thought of as an elitist or niche element. When you see in two days that many people stay for hours and hours inside the Festival, experiencing it and enjoying various encounters, it means that the direction is correct. Now many other challenges await us, including the annuality, the new collateral events and an even greater involvement of schools, public bodies and private partners because we would like in every way to maintain free entry to the event, because, sometimes , non-participation in cultural events is also an economic problem for people.”
