Sanremo Festival: the Italian Song Festival

The most eagerly awaited event in the City of Flowers is back: five evenings of music at Sanremo’s Ariston theatre and many side events throughout the city. Sanremo can also be experienced outside the Ariston: side events will animate the whole city.

Sanremo Festival: the Italian Song Festival

It is a week in which the city completely changes clothes: you breathe a different air in the streets of the centre of Sanremo, decorated for the occasion, you hear different sounds in the squares, with the music playing and the chaotic movida, you experience a VIP experience among the singers, actors and celebrities roaming the streets. Even if you can’t get a comfortable seat in the seats of the Ariston Theatre, Sanremo is certainly worth a visit at this time of year. The “Festival delle Canzone Italiana”, known as the Sanremo Festival, is a singing competition that has been held in the City of Flowers since 1951. Every year in February, singers compete on the stage of the famous Ariston Theatre to win the prestigious prize – the golden lion climbing the palm tree, symbol of Sanremo – and all the excitement and fame that comes with victory. Already established artists compete, but also the new proposals, the so-called ‘youngsters’. The winner participates in the Eurovision Song Contest by right. For many artists, the Festival opens the door to success, figuratively carving their names into the memory of listeners and engraving them, for real, on the plaques placed on the pavement of Via Matteotti, a sort of walk of fame thanks to which the history of the Festival can be retraced. Have fun reading the titles of the winning songs accompanied by the names of their performers: the walk of fame starts immediately after the Ariston Theatre and continues in the direction of the Casino. Almost halfway along the route, stop for a photo with Mike Bongiorno: at the junction with Via Escoffier stands the statue of the famous presenter, host of no less than eleven editions of the song contest. The bronze sculpture was unveiled by Fabio Fazio together with Mike’s family during the 63rd Festival. But Sanremo is not only a competition, it is also spectacle, entertainment. In the heart of Sanremo there are free concerts and international guests, actors, journalists, but also sportsmen or science personalities are often guests on stage and if you are lucky you can even see them in the street and take a much-coveted selfie with them.