The Florence music “festival” has ended and this year too the controversies are pouring in.
Firenze Rocks could be taken as an example of how not to organize a festival, wanting to avoid having your social channels invaded by stinging comments the next day…
If, on the other hand, this sideshow organized a few years ago in the beautiful Parco delle Cascine in Florence was, in fact, a festival.
Roberto De Luca Of Live Nationtalking about Firenze Rocks in comparison to the Lucca Summer Festival, he told the local press That “…it is wrong to make comparisons: ours is a festival, Lucca Summer is not, it is a series of concerts.“
It is not clear how to take this statement, because we are beyond simple involuntary comedy, we are literally mocking and distorting reality. Since we are talking about a “festival” which since it was born has been nothing more than a series of a few concerts with some opening acts.
Perhaps the first two years we could say that it started from good foundations to become a festival, enriching the programme, structures and services. But instead…
At Firenze Rocks there are no other stages other than the main one, there is no extensive program – like in REAL festivals – which sees dozens of bands and artists perform throughout most of the day; there is no campsite, there are no free basic services necessary to face one or more days (I would even say for survival), and I could continue to list shortcomings after shortcomings…
In place of all this there are a series of (luxury) festival-style booths, shaded areas the size of a postcard in a completely uncovered lawn under the sun, which in June is already quite aggressive, and bathrooms… for a fee . Yes, you read that right, there was also a series of paid bathrooms.
Ah, the payment! The famous “token“, the invention of the century for the organizers of these, I repeat, sideshows. These “tokens” are sold in a fixed number of 5, 10 or 20 and, clearly, all costs are adequately calculated so that part of these tokens remain in your pocket as they are unusable.
But who knows, maybe you have subscribed for all the days of the “festival” (and try to grasp the irony in this “all”) and the next day you will be able to reuse the advanced tokens. Ah, poor deluded people. The tokens change and you can give yesterday’s tokens to the pigeons, who are never short of change in Florence. Basically imagine a person in front of you snatching your money, because that’s what it is.
THE costs (translated from tokens to euros, because in this article I will avoid fooling you by playing with Monopoly money…): 8 euros for a 33cl beer, 8 euros for a stuffed sandwich – even if they then ran out of stuffing – 3 euros for a 0.5L bottle of water and so on.
If you then had the audacity to arrive at the concert eating a sandwich purchased outside or that you prepared yourself at home, you are forced to throw it away before entering. We know, after all, that sandwiches could be used as improper weapons, God forbid, especially those with porchetta since the rind could really hurt someone… right?
The “festival” has grown over the years… Ah no, sorry, the artists, when they are not the same as the previous yearhave decreased, the days have halved…
So what grew? But of course thepit area, which from a smaller area under the stage sold at a higher price, is now taking almost half the location. Ah, then they also invented the “super pit“. There is no need to comment, as with the paid bathrooms, Firenze Rocks seems to have the mission of creating a clear differentiation of “social class” within itself.
Then, what else has grown over the years? Well the prices, of everything. Decreasing the quality of everything.
And then? Ah yes, here are the queues, everywhere, badly managed, Italian style.
And finally, at 11pm everyone goes home, it doesn’t matter if we have as headliner a group that plays half an hour or an hour more in concert everywhere (with the aggravating circumstance of an opening act that has nothing to do with the genre of the evening and which sounds inexplicably more than it should).
So the setlists are cut, zac zac, some songs that have made the history of the band are also removed and everyone goes to bed “happy”.
Dear organisers, we have talked so far about “festival”, ironically and questioning the definition that you give yourself without any self-criticism.
But this is not the point. The point isn’t the words, it’s the facts. And here the facts speak clearly: you are currently the most hated “festival” on the peninsula and there are all the reasons.
You can continue like this and have that “big crowd” on the first evening this year (how many were there, 5 thousand exaggerating?), or you can get more spectators by bringing the same big name back again, but anyway, the next day, they’re all pissed off like hyenas.
Ah yes then there will always be those “but oh well, I saw Metallica/Tool/Guns/etc… and I’m happy the same“.
Unfortunately (for them) yes, there are also these fans(-atics). And they always come back. But apparently, those who don’t return are starting to be quite a few, a majority and not even so silent…
From today you start planning Firenze Rocks 2025, I imagine. Well, I think you can’t afford another mistake.
ps again De Luca, in the same article, says: “Springsteen dream“. From here I can hear the gonads of Claudio Trotta of Barley Arts turning like the blades of helicopters over Hanoi…
