Borgo Durbecco, Rione Nero and Rione Rosso shared the victories at the Tournament of Flag Bearers and Musicians of the “Niballo-Palio di Faenza”, which took place on the evening of Saturday 15 June in a Piazza del Popolo packed with the public, regardless of the debut match of the national football team against Albania at the European Cup in Germany.
The Flag Throwers of Borgo Durbecco won the success in the Small Team and Big Team specialties ahead of their competitive rivals from Rione Nero who showed off the best performance of the Big Team Musicians; the victory in the Singles of Raffaele Rampino junior from Rione Rosso is significant, testifying to the tenacity of the Italian champion in 2018 and 2022 to remain at the top also from a national perspective.
Once again the “people of the Districts” were able to admire the great spectacle of the flags from the porticoes of the splendid Piazza del Popolo, which as always proved to be insufficient, with the regret of not having seen a giant screen for some years to broadcast the images of the competitions in the nearby Piazza of Freedom which could respond to the desire of the people of Faenza to be close to their flag-wavers.
The Tournament of Flag Bearers and Musicians of this 2024 also marked the debut of a new computerized program for the jury sent by the “Italian Federation of Flag-wavers” (FISb.), the association of districts and bodies that in 2023 had wanted exclude, for alleged formal “peccats”, the founding City of Faenza from its staff and from the Italian Championships: IT innovation has made it possible to have the responses just ten minutes after the conclusion of the competitions; a blessing, given that in 2022 with a FISb-branded jury. the results arrived 37 minutes after midnight and that a few years earlier the same thing had happened, in identical ways. This aspect goes hand in hand with the perfect organization of the event managed by the Palio Office of the Municipality of Faenza together with the Municipal Group which supervises the regularity of the competition “on the field”, while the local support was colorful as usual, even if you are a little too verbally oriented against your opponents.
BIND
After the entry into Piazza del Popolo of the local and municipal groups, at 9.06pm the competition heated up with the performances of the individualists accompanied by a drummer: all the flag-wavers adopt a carbon fiber pole on which the banner of the own Rione which measures 130 by 130 centimeters, which are carefully checked by an FISb judge. in order to have fairness in the races.
In the Singles specialty, Rione Rosso standard-bearer Raffaele Rampino junior established himself with his well-known mastery, which earned him four titles in Faenza (2016, 2017, 2021, 2022), even though he ended up with five flags in his hands when he fell to the ground of one of these, the so-called “spread”, an error which did not compromise the positive opinion of the jury. Francesco Santandrea from Rione Nero showed off a spectacular performance which delighted the spectators, committing the sin of giving a little too much speed to his performance which cost him a few moments of uncertainty at the end and those decisive 77 hundredths of a point behind the winner. The performance of Filippo Rossi from Rione Verde was worthy of being in the competition in Faenza and he also ran into a “stretch” while he had five flags.
The spectators and jury liked the Piccola Squadra del Borgo Durbecco, with its six flag-wavers as well as the other four: it was a flawless exercise with the right amount of spectacularity worthy of a high-level national audience, without compromise by a double fall of flags to the ground. The Yellow, Green and Black districts were placed with close gaps in order, to highlight once again how the flag-wavers of Faenza have a generally superior school.
Award ceremony by Raffaele Rampino from Rione Rosso
At 10.26pm, after a break of a few minutes requested by the jury, the Grand Team competition began which saw the well-deserved success of Borgo Durbecco with its sixteen standard bearers, who put on a show without making any mistakes, well accompanied by the Musicians . The excellent performance put in by the sixteen flag-wavers of the Rione Nero was not enough to overcome the villagers: the fall of a flag and uncertainty had their impact. Two uncertainties in a good performance which did not sparkle like those of the Borgo and the Nero which gave the third place by a slight margin to the Rione Verde which presented itself with sixteen flag-wavers. The exercise implemented by the Rione Giallo was also good, where among the twelve standard-bearers there was Nicolò Benedetti who in singles and in pairs has given various satisfactions to the Porta Ponte neighborhoods in the past: the reduced number of flag-wavers had an impact , as it weighed on the Rione Rosso to have presented as many in the context of a discreet performance, but penalized by three uncertainties and the fall of a flag.
Awards ceremony for the Great Team of Borgo Durbecco
Awards ceremony for the Little Team of Borgo Durbecco
The Musicians of the Great Team of the Black Rione won against the always competitive Borgo Durbecco even if trailing by 4.73 points, while the accompaniment of the Green was valid. Yellow and Red turned out to be less bright.
Awards ceremony for the Musicians of the Black Rione
2024 RANKINGS and related scores
Single (with tambourine)
1st Rione Rosso: Raffaele Rampino junior (Luca Linguerri) 26.22
2nd Black Ward: Francesco Santandrea (Mattia Ricci) 25.45
3rd Rione Verde: Filippo Rossi (Michela Pantera) 11.27pm
4th Borgo Durbecco: Marco Tarroni (Matteo Bossa) 20.91
5th Rione Giallo: Luca Giuseppe Corvino (Lorenzo Ghiselli) 7.11pm
Small Team (with Musicians)
1st Borgo Durbecco 25.66
2nd Ward Yellow 24.51
3rd Rione Green 24.18
4th Black Ward 24.10
5th Red Ward 8.48pm
Big Team (with Musicians)
1st Borgo Durbecco 28.53
2nd Black Ward 27.89
3rd Ward Green 27,27
4th Yellow Ward 26.33
5th Red Ward 8.18pm
Musicians of the Big Team
1st Black Ward 25.79
2nd Borgo Durbecco 9.42pm
3rd Ward Green 20.81
4th Yellow Ward 4.23pm
5th Red Ward 10.55.
