“Festa del Parapiglia” Saturday 15 June to the Toscanini district of Aprilia, in via Ireland, a road that will be permanently closed to traffic next Monday as part of the neighborhood redevelopment project. The party, which inaugurates the pedestrianization of the street, will take place starting at 10.00 in the morning and will continue until 5.00 pm. The program includes art initiatives, games, recreational activities and a neighborhood lunch which will be held at 1pm. The Toscanini Neighborhood Committee will offer everyone a plate of pasta and everyone is invited to bring something. Games and activities are open to everyone, adults and children.
“Via Irish will be a place of celebration where citizens will regain their spaces and reclaim the street. – we read in the note from the Municipality of Aprilia – We will share a parade with art, games, activities and a neighborhood lunch, with the common goal of starting to inhabit this space while the construction site takes shape, anticipating and imagining the future functions of this place.
There Parapiglia Festival is a public event of urban re-appropriation, which inaugurates the pedestrianization of Via Irish, a street once dedicated to cars and trucks, which in the coming months will be the subject of the urban regeneration works of Prossima Apertura, transforming into a public park intended for the neighborhood and to the city.
The protagonist of the event will be the Parapiglia monster, an imaginary creature that sleeps quietly under the street, a friend of the community with which it shares the neighborhood.
Woken up by traffic and smog, Parapiglia decides to destroy the road to stop cars from passing and, with his sharp fingers, traces a deep furrow on the asphalt surface. To appease him, the help of the inhabitants is needed: the Parapiglia must be accompanied in the parade and, one stage after another, the inhabitants are called to carry out actions that re-inhabit the different sections of the route. At each stage a flag is set, symbol of the reconquest of the road.
The fourth and final stage marks the definitive closure of the road. Gathered around the piñata-trum, we will make the seeds of the new beginning emerge from the monster’s head. The turmoil vanishes, leaving the sign of the new rebirth of Via Ireland in the earth.
Afterwards, the street will be transformed into a giant horizontal game, with music and activities to have fun and celebrate the beginning of the change. Let the reappropriation begin!”
PLAN
10:00 am | Start of the parade and street-painting workshops
The first stage of the reappropriation immerses us in art: asphalt spaces the size of a parking lot will become real drawing canvases. Everyone will have the opportunity to tell their story and express their creativity with chalk, paint and spray cans.
11:00 am | Street games
In the second stage, we play! Let’s imagine a public park animated by runs, competitions and laughter. Throughout the morning, adults and children will be involved in a rich variety of street games, to experiment and affirm the conquest of the new space.
1.00 pm | Collective lunch
The third stage makes the street a real home: we all eat together.
The Toscanini Neighborhood Committee will offer everyone a plate of pasta, everyone is invited to bring something (preferably their specialty!) for a neighborhood picnic to share with the neighborhood.
3.00 pm | The piñata-hustle
USEFUL INFORMATION
Saturday 15 June
10:00 – 17:00
Via Ireland, 04011 Aprilia LT
You don’t need to sign up. Games and activities are open to everyone, adults and children.
Comfortable clothing is recommended: you just need to prepare to play, have fun and get dirty with colours.
You can bring games, towels to stay on the lawn, food and drinks, in short you can do whatever you want. The road is yours!”.
