Normality returns to the events of the Niballo-Palio di Faenza: having almost forgotten the months of the pandemic and with the open wounds of the floods of 2023, the two knightly jousts and the flag-waving tournaments find their traditional location between the first and fourth Sunday of June, even if some differences are noticeable.
What changes between rides and flags
On the evening of Saturday 8 June the Bigorda d’Oro tournament for young or emerging knights it will not be preceded by the parade in historical costume starting from Piazza del Popolo and arriving at the competition field, the “Bruno Neri” municipal stadium, where it will instead act as a prologue to the single combat challenges.
In the unfortunate event of bad weather, the Palio del Niballo carousel scheduled for the early evening of Sunday 23 June it would not be postponed to the following Sunday, 30 June, but to Saturday 29, coincidentally coinciding with the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the anniversary on which the dispute was disputed from 1959 and for several decades.
The competitions between the flag-wavers and musicians of the five districts on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June return to being under the aegis of the cultural and sporting association of flag groups and cities called “Italian Federation of Flag-Wavers” (FISB.), which will make the juries available, but the “Faenza of Flag-Wavers” starts again from what it can be defined as the “third division”, i.e. the best Singles, Couples, Small Teams, Large Teams and Musicians from Faenza will compete on July 7th in Sulmona qualification for the “second division” for 2025.
Only the Single and the Couple, in the event of victory in the specialty, would be admitted as early as 19 to 21 July to the respective “second division” competitions (Tenzone Argentea in Ascoli Piceno), which, if won, would give them access to the “first division ” (Tenzone Area, from 6 to 8 September in Ascoli Piceno) which graduates the best in Italy: a long and tiring path, but feasible given the skills and experience of the Manfredi standard bearers.
“The coincidence with the Saturday afternoon dedicated to the European Parliament elections led the prefect and the police commissioner not to allow the historic Bigorda procession for safety reasons, while allowing the event to take place regularly inside the stadium – explained Massimo Isola, mayor and district magistrate -. The move to Saturday 29th instead of Sunday 30th of the possible postponement of the Palio is instead due to the passage of the stage of the Tour of France from our city, an important event that involves the traffic of the center and our police forces. As regards the flag-waving tournaments, we have found an agreement with the FISB. which allows us to return to competing in the context that sees us as founders”.
The world of the Rioni on TV
The June events of the Niballo-Palio of Faenza were presented on the morning of Wednesday 22 May in the town hall by the mayor and Benedetta Diamanti, director of the culture, tourism, sport and international policies sector of the Union of Romagna Faentina and organizational manager of the Niballo , which, among other things, announced that in the next month a Sky Italia crew will be working in the city to shoot a documentary on the world of the Palio and the Rioni which will soon be broadcast on one of the satellite and streaming channels of the paid platform, in the hope of many that it will also have at least one passage on one of Sky Italia’s free-to-air channels on digital terrestrial, TV8 or Cielo.
The disputes
The rich calendar of events, which returns to the original programming, will open in afternoon of Sunday 2 June with the Giovanissimi Alfieri e Bandieranti Tournament in Piazza del Popolofollowed at 9pm by Oath of the Knights of the Golden Bigorda and from the Under 21 Singles and Pairs competition.
On Saturday 8 June the Bigorda d’Oro Tournament returns after two years, now in its 25th edition and which in 2022 saw the Rione Giallo as the winner. This year the historical Bigorda d’Oro procession will only parade inside the Stadium starting from 9pm.
The third weekend will be dedicated to the flag races: Saturday 15 June at 8.30pm with the Tournament of Flag Bearers and Musicians in the Singles, Small Team, Large Team and Musicians specialties and on Sunday 16th at 9pm the Pairs competition (the one which awards the winning district the barrel full of 50 liters of sweet albana) opened by the Oath of the Palio knights.
The Palio banner and the Unicorn
The winning district of the 67th Palio del Niballo on Sunday 23 June will win the drape created by the artist Giancarlo Montuschi, who was moved while illustrating how he arrived at the creation of the painting on canvas which to most seemed to go beyond certain traditional canons . “My way of working is that of pop art – he explained – it’s my style. I deliberately didn’t put a Saint Peter walking on water, because we’ve had enough of water, while the keys he holds are pop size”.
The best lady of the historical walk of the Palio will receive the ceramic statuette representing the “Liocorno” created within the Studio AD – Terra in Arte of Angeliki Drossaki by the Forlì artist Alexandra Massari, who highlighted that she had solved the age-old misunderstanding between “unicorn” and “unicorn”. “I created a white statuette with a gold horn to represent purity – he clarified -. The figure of the traditional unicorn is that of a powerful horse with a lion’s tail and bovine legs”. What is certain is that thanks to the skill of Alexandra Massari we are once again appreciating the meaning of this award, given that on some past occasions the “unicorn” seemed a worthy relative of the best “Alien” by director Ridley Scott.
Field Master and Podestà
This year the Niballo events will also see for the first time the presence of the new Magistrates of the Giostra with Cristian Malavolti, with a past as a knight of the Rione Verde, as Podestà of the Giostra and Nicola Solaroli as Master of the Field.
Palio and Bigorda on your smartphone
On the occasion of the Bigorda and the Palio, the paper round sheets will be replaced by the scorecard application of the Niballo-Palio of Faenza, downloadable from Google Play, App Store and App Gallery, renewed in some functions to allow for an update in time real of the victories of the rounds. In addition to the sections dedicated to the assignment of shields and times of the rounds (which will appear automatically by downloading the latest version from the online stores), the App, designed by Fabio Garavini, will be the all-in-one tool for staying updated on the month of the Palio. In addition to the program of the 2024 Events, it offers the possibility of consulting the Rolls of Honor of both the Jousts and the District Weeks, watching the live streaming and directly accessing the official website www.paliodifaenza.it.
The districts and the schools
The educational workshops on the Niballo-Palio di Faenza aimed at schools in the Faenza area and launched for the first time in the 2022-2023 school year ended last week. This school year was characterized by a successful enrollment involving 44 classes and over 1,000 students (+60% compared to the previous year). The workshop activities were organized with the coordination of the Palio Office and the joint work of the Acsè Association, the District Youth Committee, the Districts and the Cooperativa dei Manfredi thanks to which the workshops on flags and drums, visits to the Rioni Civic Center and the district offices were are accompanied by historical-cultural meetings on the Niballo events, including colours, drawings and frontal lessons. Words like Rioni, Niballo, drummer and flag-waver have entered the family lexicon of many young people from Faenza, especially the youngest.
The weeks in the Rioni and the FantaPalio
Starting from Monday 3 June, the five districts will host, as always, the traditional dinners and events that will return to enliven the venues with an agenda dedicated to food and wine from Romagna and from all over the world; to this is added a calendar of sporting, musical and entertainment events truly for all tastes. An important moment of sociality and aggregation that reminds us of the importance of the five Faenza districts as a point of reference for the community.
Furthermore, from this year it will be possible to participate in the FantaPalio, an initiative promoted by the District Youth Committee and which recalls the FantaSanremo in its modalities. The website linked to the initiative will be put online on 1 June and will contain the Regulations and the updated rankings, while the dedicated FantaPalio_niballo Instagram page is already active. How does the FantaPalio work? Each player will be able to create their own team by choosing one of the five Knights of the Niballo and a historical procession as well as 2 Individuals, 2 Couples, 1 Small Team, 1 Large Team, 1 Music Group and a Drummer from the Pairs Competition (La Botte) having to 600 Saracens (FantaPalio currency) with which he will “purchase” the protagonists of the various specialties who will become part of his team. After the races, the rankings will be published on the ad hoc website, both on the basis of the placing in the races and on the basis of the occurrence of special bonuses and penalties.
Pre-sales
Tickets for the Bigorda d’Oro will be available for online presale starting from May 27th at 12pm on “http://www.vivaticket.com/” and in authorized sales points, while those for the Palio del Niballo will be available for presale from May 10th June. These will be accompanied by the classic presale at the Masini Theater which will be activated on the occasion of the evenings dedicated to the Alfieri Bandieranti and Musici Tournaments on Sunday 2 June (for the Bigorda d’Oro), Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June (for the Palio) from 7.30pm to 10pm and at the box office of the Neri Stadium on the days of the Jousts: for the Bigorda d’Oro on 8 June from 10am to 12pm and from 4.30pm and for the Palio on 22 June from 5.30pm to 7.30pm and on 23 June from 10am to 12pm and in the afternoon from 3pm.
Niballo on… the sofa
The live streaming service on the official channels is confirmed, which will allow you to watch the Jousts and Tournaments of the Flag Bearers and Musicians in real time. In particular, the 25th Bigorda d’Oro Tournament will be broadcast starting from 9pm on the Palio Youtube channel, on the official website of the event http://www.paliodifaenza.it/ on the Facebook page @NiballoOfficial and on the Faenza WebTv channels as well as the Tournament of Flag Bearers and Musicians (Sunday 2 June at 9pm, Saturday 15 June at 8.30pm and Sunday 16 June at 9pm).
The 67th Palio del Niballo will be broadcast both live streaming on the official Palio channels and live on TeleRomagna (channel 14 of digital terrestrial) starting from 6pm (and a repeat on a date to be communicated). The summary of the 25th Bigorda d’Oro Tournament will be broadcast deferred, again on TeleRomagna on Monday 10 June at 9pm.
