‘Everybody at school’ from the Saffi Alberti technical institute in Forlì was above all a great show, with music and performances, and with the tricolor standing out against the background of a blue sky, crossed by white clouds. The hosts Flavio Insinna and the singer Malika Ayane greeted the audience at the opening with over a thousand present, including students, professors and authorities, with the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in the front row.
The broadcast, live on Rai 1, was first of all a celebration, but also the recognition of the contribution of solidarity offered by young people in those tragic days of May, with the flood that hit the city of Forlì. Malika Ayane with her song ‘Ricomincia da qui’ immediately sends a message of courage and hope to a wounded area, but which has reacted with courage and resilience. “For me too it’s like the first day of school – says the singer – with the emotion and pleasure of being there”. Then President Sergio Mattarella enters, welcomed by the national anthem, followed by the tragic images of the flood, with the fury of the water that brought mourning and destruction.
Among the guests, selected through a public notice in which institutes from all over Italy participated, were the students of the Comprehensive Institute of Chieri (Turin): 25 violinists who performed ‘Carovana in the desert’, accompanied by their teacher Simone Zoja. On stage, with the students dancing, came the singer Alfa, author of ‘Sei Bellissima’, “who reminds us of the Latin teacher who made us learn Virgil by heart…now instead I’m studying the cello…”. Current affairs therefore, but also health, sport, Italian schools abroad and stories of social redemption, with the children of the Musco dance high school in Catania engaged in the exhibition dedicated to ‘Pandora, the myth’.
There is also space for recent news with 16-year-old Alessandro Dioni from Arezzo who, thanks to a first aid course attended at school, saved the life of 50-year-old Marcello Amadori, who fell ill, with a defibrillator. From a news story with a happy ending to the performance of the ‘Germana Erba’ theatrical dance high school in Turin which interpreted ‘High School Musical’, with 25 dancers and two girls in wheelchairs, paralympic dance champions, a concentration of energy and inclusion, directed by maestro Leonardo De Amicis.
Then a video announced on stage the young actor Nicolò Galasso, protagonist of the television series ‘Mare Fuori’, who explains how “training and knowledge make you free. Knowledge is infinite and I wish all the kids to always study and be passionate about know”. Sport is also in the foreground with the athletes Sofia Raffaelli, Simone Giannelli, Claudia Creti and Maxcel Amo Manu, with the president of CONI Giovanni Malagò and Luca Pancalli, president of the Italian Paralympic Committee. “Now we will start again – says the volleyball champion Simone Giannelli – after the European final lost against Poland, also because defeats hurt, but they help us grow”. The champions are aiming for the Paris 2024 Olympics, with presidents Malagò and Pancalli speaking of the school as an important vehicle for education and training in sport.
Then the audience stands up to dance to the summer hit ‘Italo disco’ by The Kolors, with frontman Stash mentioning the new album in progress and “the importance of continuing to study to grow”. The ‘Morvillo Falcone’ professional institute in Brindisi proposed, at the end, a fashion show, between ethics and aesthetics, with clothes made at school, launching a message of resistance and fight against the mafia.
