Ferrara «Do you feel it? I feel? The beginning of a new era.” Word of Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini. Five years have passed since “Nuova era”, a summer hit that made thousands of people dance on beaches all over Italy (including Lido Estensi), and yet those words are more relevant than ever. He often repeats it Rebecca Buttons: «A new era has begun, but we are still us».
The president and artistic director of the Ferrara Buskers Festival is ready to face a new, important, demanding challenge. And she does it with the energy and determination that this step requires. «We are an excellence at an international level, we are recognized throughout the world for our unique and inimitable format. We don’t want to be swallowed up by imitations or surrogates, we want to remain unique and to do this we must change.” Change can be embraced or it can be endured, Rebecca and her team have chosen the first path. From 21st to 25th August the Ferrara Buskers Festival “moves” and after 37 years it moves to another part of the historic center. The artists will no longer perform between Piazza Trento e Trieste, Via Mazzini, San Romano and Corso Martiri but will find a home between Ercole I d’Este course and Massari park. Another important step is the introduction of a entrance ticketa ticket that will not preclude you from leaving, as per tradition, an offering to the street artists.
How did the idea come about?
“We have been thinking about this evolution of the festival for three years now. In 2021, when we organized an experimental paid edition to deal with the Covid-19 restrictions, we found greater interest from the public. There was more awareness on the part of the spectators, more attention to the performances. This made us think.”
What effect does it have on you?
“For us, the entrance ticket represents an economic means that allows us to dedicate more attention to the organization, to the artists and therefore also to the public. We know that we are taking an important step, in some ways epochal, but we believe it is necessary.”
Is it a thoughtful choice?
“Absolutely yes. In the last three years we have studied a lot, we didn’t want to put an entry ticket and leave everything as it was, it wouldn’t have been right. We have selected the artists who will arrive in Ferrara with even more care and, given that we received 985 requests in total, it was not easy to choose. The performances will have more regular schedules, the stations will be further apart and every day there will be a before and after festival.”
Meaning what?
«We will start in the afternoon with meetings, workshops and talks. The public will have the opportunity not only to attend the artist’s performance but also to get to know him up close. From 5pm to 8pm there will be dedicated events, from 8pm to midnight music and performances in the streets, and then from midnight to 4am the buskers festival will continue in Parco Massari. Always respecting the place and times; we don’t want to disturb or create any kind of inconvenience.”
A real buskers marathon.
«Exactly, we will sleep little but if things go as we hope there will be a lot of satisfaction. We expect a more prepared, attentive and therefore also more demanding public; we can’t wait to be able to answer him with our best smile. They will be full immersion for twelve hours a day and for those of us behind the scenes even more.”
How did the team take it?
“Well. The response from the association’s leadership to the youngest staff member was positive. A new challenge to face. From the first edition to today we have had 5,555 busker groups in the city, an enormous number. Leafing through old programs and looking at old photographs I came across artists that I no longer even remembered; it was a surprise for me too. We are aware that we have created something unique and now we want to raise the level.”
This year the spaces are also changing, don’t you think it’s unsettling for artists and the public?
«No, on the contrary, I think this change can benefit everyone. This change – says Rebecca looking at the project manager Erika Sarson sitting next to her – came as a vision and could not be done halfway; we needed a revolution that was capable of maintaining what has been and, at the same time, looking to the future. We are convinced that everyone, especially the public, will be happy to walk along Corso Ercole I d’Este and the entire area connected to it.”
Why?
«The historic center is larger than what one might commonly think. For years, when talking about Via Carlo Mayr, we heard that it was a decentralized area; For us it’s quite absurd. We want to bring the festival to another part of the city to involve it and show the tourists and buskers who come how beautiful our city is. Furthermore, we realized that the areas of the new route could prove to be even more welcoming, evocative and functional than Corso Martiri, Listone, San Romano…”.
In short, an additional view of the city.
“Exactly. We would like one thing to be clear: with this choice, beauty has not been deprived, it has been strengthened.”
There are less than two months until the festival starts. How does he feel?
“I’m excited. The more I work on building this edition, the more beautiful it seems to me. In addition to meetings with artists and workshops, there will also be space for guided tours of the festival locations, there will be an exhibition and it will be possible to discover the workshop of my father Stefano, founder of the event. It all started in his laboratory.”
What would you like to say to those who don’t know you or to those who are scared of changes?
«Come and visit us. Come and see what it is like before criticizing. You don’t have to like it, of course, but you have to see it first. I’m sure it will be an experience for everyone. We will host sixty artists for a total of 180 shows a day, isn’t it exciting? There are buskers who started their careers here and who have chosen to return to the city to end it. There will be great returns and artists never seen before; it will be beautiful».
Is there a single ticket or are there different formulas?
«There are many of us, each of us has our own needs and so we thought we would also differentiate the entrances. Always free access up to 12 years old. For those coming to Ferrara for a hit and run we have the “One day pass”, a ticket that allows you to attend the shows and take part in talks and activities: 11 euros (reduced 8). Then there is the “Family Friends Pass”, for groups of between 4 and 10 people under 30 (8 euros). “Full Festival Pass”, the whole festival for 40 euros. And again “3-Day Pass” (20 euros), from 21 to 23 August and finally “Group Pass” for groups of ten people and up (info [email protected]). The formulas can already be purchased on ticketmaster (plus pre-sale rights, ed.)”.
What is your first memory related to the festival?
“My father telling me: ‘We can’t go to the seaside in August.’ I was a little girl, I was about ten years old and I was used to going on holiday with my parents in August. I remember that moment well and – she smiles, ed. – I also remember that I responded in a rather annoyed way.”
And how did it go?
«He told me that in August some musicians would be coming to Ferrara and that because of this we wouldn’t be able to go on vacation. I thought: “But who are these musicians who won’t let me go to the beach?”. It was the summer of 1988, the first edition of the festival. When the time came I remember that I had a lot of fun. It was the same the following summer and the one after that. It’s been 37 years now that I haven’t gone to the beach in August».
